Bleak Future
by The Night Hunter
Summary: Pyrrha woke up in an alien world surrounded by people she used to know. Will she be able to find the strength to push forward and defeat a tyrant? Or will she submit, dooming the world of Remnant to a Bleak Future?
1. Chapter 1

Cold.

It was all the being could feel. Mind numbing, chilling cold filled every fiber of its body… or did it? The being did not know if it was real or even had a body to begin with. All it knew was cold and darkness.

It could not remember the past nor understand the present. The being didn't know if it spent years or seconds in that state of cold and darkness.

Forever and ever.

Back!

The being paused.

Back!

The voice sounded again, stronger this time.

We need you back!

The being did not understand. Who were… we? Who was it that they needed it so much? The being did not want to go; the darkness was calling for it…

We need you back, Pyrrha Nikos!

Then she remembered everything with stunning clarity.

Her birth.

Her first step.

Her first word.

The first time she held a sword.

Her first victory.

The loneliness and alienation she felt.

Her trip to Beacon.

Her friends and comrades.

Her first and only love.

Her death.

Her destiny.

Your destiny is not over Pyrrha Nikos! The female quartet voice tore through the darkness filling it with blinding light and warmth.

Her name was Pyrrha Nikos!

* * *

A sensation came back to Pyrrha. For some reason she had a feeling that it was long time she felt it. She felt wet.

And smelly!

Pyrrha's eyes snapped open while she sat from her lying position. Looking around she saw that she was in some sort of back alley. It was filled with garbage cans, explaining why it smelt so bad. Not to mention a steady drizzle was falling from the grey sky, threatening to turn into a downpour.

"Where Am I?" Pyrrha wondered. The last thing she remembered was getting shoot in the chest by the fire arrow and then, nothing.

She slowly stood up, looking for some clue where she might be. But then she realized exactly what kind of last memory it was.

"Monty Almighty!" she exclaimed, realizing that her friends were in mortal danger! She ran out of the alley to what looked like a main street.

The people outside only spared her a fleeting glace before running to find some sort of shelter, but it was weird. Despite the rather large number of people, the street was way too silent, filled only with hush whispers and the sounds of feet splashing on the water.

"Excuse me?" she tried to ask, but was promptly ignored. Maybe she smelt of trash or something?

"What the hell happened to this city… for prostitute to walk on the streets? Where are the guards?"

Pyrrha overheard a voice.

Turning back, she saw an old woman looking straight at her, making her feel extremely self-conscious about her rather revealing battle outfit… that stood out like a sore thumb in a sea of grey and white the people wore.

Feeling her cheeks heat up, she moved down the street trying to find anything that could help her. But she could not recognize the city or the Kingdom she was in at all. She had seen all of them, yet this city was like a mix up of every single one.

High-tech towers of Atlas reached the skies, large open parks native to Vacuo, the grand columns and sculptures of her beloved Mistral, and the cameral and cozy buildings of Vale.

Everything in one.

Madness.

After a few minutes of strolling, she reached some sort of park, deserted due to the weather.

She felt cold.

Her clothes weren't exactly suited for this sort of weather and a shiver went down her spine. She saw a tree nearby and moved there to shield herself from the rain. She sat at the base of the trunk, wrapping her arms around her knees to keep as much warmth as possible to herself.

She hated being cold.

But to her dismay the rain seemed to get stronger as the temperature started to drop.

"Great," Pyrrha thought dryly. "Wonder what else will happen?"

As on cue, a single golden-red leaf fell from the tree, landing softly right next to her… but before Pyrrha could even manage to ponder on the irony of the situation, a harsh voice snapped her out of her musings.

"Hey you! Identify yourself!"

Pyrrha's head snapped up to see two… she wasn't really sure what they were. At first glance, they looked like Atlas soldiers but with way more high tech equipment with full white and yellow body armor. Not to mention rather vicious looking rifles. She slowly stood up, eyeing the soldiers. "Identify yourself!"

"My name is Pyrrha Nikos, a student of Beacon Academy," she replied.

The rain continued to fall as the silence stretched.

"Base, this is patrol 38-42, Belladonna Park; we got a…" the guard looked at Pyrrha's unkempt appearance. "Mentally retarded girl claiming that she's Pyrrha Nikos… no, she does not pose a threat… yes we'll bring her in for questioning."

That comment put Pyrrha's on full alert.

"You need to come with us girl." the guards begin to approach her.

"Where will you take me?" Pyrrha took a step back.

"To our department to ask you some questions… now will you come with us willingly or do we have to make you?"

She frowned. Pyrrha was cold, miserable, worried sick for her friends, and was called prostitute and retard in the span of an hour. Now some guy was threatening her… bad move on his part. Pyrrha took a defensive stance.

Even with the plate mask on, she could see his irritated expression.

"Not a single boring day…" he aimed his rifle at her. "Change it to stun mode."

"Yes sir!" the second guard replied.

"Last chance girl, stand down and you won't be harmed." Pyrrha remained adamant. "Your choice…"

But before they managed to take a shot, their rifles flew out of their hands and turned on them.

"What the hell is that!?" the second guard exclaimed.

"Base this is patrol 38-42 we have a rouge hunter here, I repeat, we have a… gyah!" he screamed as a dust powered shot hit his chest. The armor took the burst of the damage, but it gave him a good scare.

"Now you will answer MY questions!" Pyrrha said gravely.

"If you think you can scare us–" the guard couldn't finish as Pyrrha took control of his arm and lifted him into the air before slamming him harshly to the ground.

"I can crush this armor with you in it…." she left the sentence hanging. "So where am I?" she addressed the second guard who somehow managed to make his whole armor tremble.

"You're in the Capital City of Remnant Protectorate, Nikosia!"

"The what? Never heard of it?" Pyrrha replied puzzled. "Where is this Protectorate?"

"What?" the guard replied dumbly.

"I asked where this Protectorate is located, in which Kingdom?" she clarified.

"Err… there are no Kingdoms anymore, only the Protectorate… we united the whole world of Remnant."

Pyrrha mouth hung agape.

'How is this possible?!' she thought with a growing panic. "H-How long has this Protectorate exist?"

This time even the plate mask gave the impression… are you retarded?

"We're at the eve of the 10th anniversary…" he replied carefully.

Pyrrha gulped, feeling a cold sweat slide down her back.

"What year it is?"

"2036."

Pyrrha felt like someone just hit her with a hammer. She's been gone for twenty long years… she dropped her semblance, making the rifles hit the ground with a thud. And then she took a step back, shaking her head, then another and another until she hit the trunk.

"No, no, no, it's not possible! No, no…" she chanted in denial, ignoring the fact that the second guard stood up. Yet he made no moves to get his weapon as he looked at the mumbling girl seemingly in awe.

The other guard just tapped his temple a few times, then the air was pierced by a loud wail.

"Finally, backup…" the guard mumbled, waking Pyrrha from her stupor.

Her eyes widened at the sight of oncoming ships. She took off with speed she shouldn't have achieved in high heels.

"Suspect, cease your actions or we will use lethal force! I repeat, stop running or we will shoot you!"

Pyrrha turned back, seeing three ships on her tail.

"Damn… what will I… yes?!" She saw a part where threes trees grew more thickly and turned there.

"This is your last warning!"

The tree line was almost there.

"Fi–!"

BOOOOM!

Pyrrha's head snapped back as loud explosion ripped through the air. One of the ships was hit and was currently falling down in flames.

"YAHOOOOOOOO!" A shot somehow managed to out sound the explosion. "Take that you bastards!"

The owner of this extraordinary loud and brash voice had a really large shit-eating grin on his head. The boy looked to be about Pyrrha's age with bright orange hair and pink eyes. He was quite tall and was well built. He wore a green army vest with white T-shirt under it with army style Moro pants and heavy black military boots.

In his hands was a disturbingly familiar grenade launcher.

"BOOM TIME!" he shot again, taking down a second ship. Seeing the swift defeat of its comrades the crew of the third one decided to retreat. "HEY! COME BACK HERE!" He shouted after them.

He was about to give chase when suddenly a girl materialized behind him and whacked his head with well-placed chop.

"Who told you that you can go?" she spoke with calm, stoic voice. She had a shoulder length raven hair with streak of pink in them. Her posture was rather lithe but every move she made was filled with grate and fluidness. She wore a green traditional Chinese dress with images of twin dragons on the sides.

"Haven't you heard, there's a rouge hunter?!" the boy exclaimed. "I mean, how many of them are left besides of us!?"

"Hadn't the fact that it might be a trap cross your mind?" the calm façade was starting to strain.

"Yeah… but look, it wasn't!" he told her, pointing her finger at Pyrrha.

"Hello?" she gave a hesitant wave.

"What if it's a trap?" she pressed, giving Pyrrha a blank stare.

"I wouldn't mind being caught then," the boy replied, winking at her and making her blush.

"You're impossible… look, whoever you are–"

"Pyrrha Nikos."

"… right, we can't speak here… Pyrrha, we need to go to some safer place," she stated. "Now."

"Okay, I'll follow you." Pyrrha replied.

"Great! My name's Thor, this is my twin Xi, nice to meet you!" Thor said with a wide smile.

"Thor, we need to go now!" Xi urged as the sirens started to wail from multiple directions.

The trio took off with Xi on front, Pyrrha in the middle, while Thor took care of the rear… in more than one sense.

"Bow chika wow-wow," he uttered.

Pyrrha tried to not die from embarrassment this time. It was first time anyone made such comments about her.

After a few minutes of the chase with the guards on their tail, the trio ended up in some less than upstanding establishment filled with what Pyrrha could describe as scum of Remnant. The place didn't even seem that old but the stench of tobacco and alcohol and something Pyrrha didn't even want to think off really aged it.

But it didn't seem to faze the not-twins, even a bit. Pyrrha refused to call them twins! They had way too different personalizes that reminded her so much of her teammates.

"Come Pyrrha, we'll show you a special place." Thor said, moving into a bar. "Hey, Senior, give me two Grimm specials!"

"Coming!" A large, greying bearded man replied, inching his head to the right. Pyrrha followed the not-twins to the room on the right. Xi opened the doors and held it for her.

"Go in, she's waiting for you," she said curtly.

Pyrrha gave her thankful nod, wondering who that mysterious person was. She crossed the threshold to see… a magazine filled room with various kinds of bottles.

"Sorry."

Before Pyrrha managed to react, she felt a hit in the back of her head and then nothing but darkness.

* * *

For the second time today, Pyrrha opened her eyes, feeling miserable. Her head hurt, she could not move, and she was hungry and thirsty, all-in-all, a great wake up.

After a second, she realized that she couldn't see anything due to the bag over her eyes. She was sitting on some sort of chair and was bound to it.

'At least some things got explained.' she thought dryly.

"I see you woke up," Thor's voice startled her. "Whoa, easy there, we're not going to hurt you."

"You already did." Pyrrha shot back bitterly.

"Hehehe… sorry about that, but we can't take any risks nowadays," he replied sheepishly.

"What are you going to do with me?" Pyrrha finally asked.

"Like I said, nothing bad, my Dad just wants to speak with you," the boy told her.

"And if he doesn't like what I have to say?" she managed to ask without a tremble in her voice.

"We'll most likely drop you off somewhere in the city." he put his hand on her bare shoulder, making her flinch. "Look, we're not murderers; we're not going to kill you. We're not like those bastards, Protectors!"

Somehow Pyrrha believed him; he didn't seem like a bad person.

"Can I have some water? I'm parched."

"Sure, I thought you would like something to drink." Pyrrha heard the sound of running water. Then she felt the bag being moved up. "Here, drink slowly and stuff."

"Thank you," Pyrrha took a sip from the mug, quenching her thirst a bit. "Can I have another one?"

"Sure."

She downed it all too and asked for another and another.

"Damn girl, it looks like you haven't been drinking anything in days!" Thor commented with amusement.

"Make it years," Pyrrha replied after she was finally watered enough.

"… I'll pretend I get that… so what's your name?" he asked.

"I told you, it's Pyrrha Nikos."

"Awww, come on girl, I thought we were friends!" Thor pouted. Yes, she could hear him pout. "So maybe a first letter?"

Before Pyrrha managed to reply, she heard doors opening and two pairs of feet coming in.

"Son, I still need to speak with that girl, don't tire her out," a shockingly familiar voice reached Pyrrha's ears. True it was more manly and mature, but it held the same level of inner calmness and gentleness… and her chin started to tremble.

"I was just about to get her number dad! Give me five more minutes!"

"Thor, don't make me go through all the etiquette lessons with you aga–"

"Ren?" Pyrrha croaked, not able to hold in her emotions.

The room went deadly silent.

"Ren… is that really you?" she said again, desperate for any anchor of familiarity. "Please answer me!" She hated the pleading tone in her voice but she couldn't care less if it meant one of her old friends reuniting with her.

A sound of steps came close and the bag was slowly lifted from her head.

Pyrrha's green eyes met with the oh-so familiar pink ones.

Before her was standing her former teammate Lie Ren.

All twenty years older.

He was now much higher than she remembers with wide shoulders and a more manly face. Right now it was impossible to mistake him for a woman. But what grabbed Pyrrha's attention the most was a rugged scar going from his right temple thought the nose to the left cheek.

But it was really him no mistake on that part.

"Ren…" Pyrrha chocked, letting her tears fall freely. "It is you…" she sobbed quietly, feeling immense relief.

"Who are you?" the man asked coldly, making Pyrrha's head snap to look at him in disbelief.

"What do you mean Ren? It's me Pyrrha!" she said desperately.

"Pyrrha has been dead for twenty years now… I don't know what is going on here, but I advise you to stop playing now…" he said darkly. "You're tarnishing the memory of someone who was very close to me…"

"Dad…" Thor tried to intertwine, not remembering seeing his dad this pissed off in a really long time. Even Xi who was silent this whole time was looking at the scene with wide eyes.

"Silence!" he snapped harshly, making both of his children flinch.

"Ren... please believe me!" Pyrrha begged. "I don't know what is happening, but I woke up here today! I don't understand what is going on!" she felt like her heart was about to explode. She could see that her friend was trembling with anger, glaring at her with a fiery look in his eyes. "Please! You have to believe me! Don't you remember when we…" then the dam broke. Pyrrha started to babble every single little moment she could recall with team JNPR and Ren. Every minute they spent at Beacon, training, leaning, chilling out or listening to Yang's lame puns. Every small moment that Pyrrha treasured above all since she finally got the comrades and friends she craved so much for.

If her eyes weren't so full of tears, she would've seen the change that went on Ren's face.

The anger faded giving way to shock. Then came the disbelief and confusion and then…

"And… and …and... and…" Pyrrha tried to say something more, but nothing could come to her exhausted mind. She gritted her teeth, feeling all her hope go down in flames when suddenly a par of strong arms wrapped itself around her head.

"Hush… I believe you, I don't know how, but Monty almighty I believe you." Ren said, petting her head. He felt that tears were threatening to fall from his eyes too.

"Ren…Ren…" Pyrrha couldn't hug him so she did next best thing and pushed herself deeper in his embrace, sobbing freely.

Ren, seeing her bound hands, cut the ropes in a swift motion with his aura coated fingers, displaying his mastery over aura. With her hands free, Pyrrha fully embraced her old friend, burying her head in his chest.

While the two were embracing, they completely missed Thor running out of the room. About a minute later he was back but he wasn't alone.

With him was a short woman with bright orange hair, dressed in pink dress.

Nora Lie entered the scene looking almost exactly like twenty years ago with exception of having few more wrinkles but no one alive dared to point that out… not even Ren.

"Thor, honey, what's the ruku–?" she paused, seeing her husband hugging some other woman than her or her daughter. "I KNEW YOU WERE CHEATING ON ME!" she roared, charging at her traitorous husband, set to give him the divorce of his life.

But before Ren met his gruesome fate, Pyrrha moved her head up, locking eyes with the infuriated woman.

"N-Nora?" she uttered in a hoarse voice.

The orange haired woman stopped dead in her tracks with mouth agape and her fist mere centimeters from Ren's skull.

Her mind could not process what she was seeing now. The woman in Ren's eyes looked like a dirty, puffy-eyed version of Pyrrha Nikos… which was impossible.

Nora looked at Ren who cautiously moved her fist down for any sort of explanation. But she could see that he was as lost as her.

"Is she?" Nora dared to ask.

"I believe s–" he could not even finish as Nora crashed into both of them, wrapping her arms around in bone crushing hug.

"PYRRHA!" she exclaimed, lifting them with ease and spinning around. The amazon warrior could not hold out much longer and burst out laughing at the absurdity of the situation, returning the hug with all her strength. Nora started to laugh too, hugging her even tighter.

The only one who currently wasn't laughing was Ren who was fighting for every breath he took. After all, they were both ridiculously strong… too strong.

After a few minutes, they finally dropped the hug, saving him from certain death, and took in the sight, still not believing.

"But how?" Nora finally asked.

"I don't know…" Pyrrha said, wiping her eyes.

"The others need to hear of this." Ren said, "Thor, Xi, send a message that we're having an emergency meeting ASAP."

Both children bolted out of the room at once.

"C'mon, Pyr, we need to get you cleaned up." Nora said, taking her hand.

"But–"

"Apapa, no buts dear Missy, you have to listen to your elders, bath, food, bed, and tomorrow you will get all the answers." Nora said cheerfully.

"Just one question, please," Pyrrha said, making a face none of them could resist. "Is Jaune still alive?"

Ren and Nora shared a look.

"He is well," Ren said with a smile.

Pyrrha felt immense relief.

"Thank, Monty."

"Okay! Question time over!" Nora pushed her out of the room, leaving Ren alone.

'Tomorrow is going to be interesting.'

* * *

 _Next day at an undisclosed location_

After a really long bath and good night rest, Pyrrha was taken for a flight out of the capitol of Protectorate. When she asked when they were going, she was given a very vague answer…

"You'll see!" Nora said, patting her arm.

The ship was small and maybe able to fit ten people at best, without any weapons whatsoever.

"Why is this ship not armed? What if the Grimms attack?" she asked.

"There are no Grimms within the borders of Protectorate." Ren replied, shocking her. "The Protector made sure of it, driving them to the point of extinction. Then the state passed a bill that banned the armed civilian vessels and now only the army can have such ships."

"Oh… but that's good, right? I mean no Grimm and all." Pyrrha said.

"There are some things worse than Grimm Pyr," Nora smiled sadly. "That's why we oppose it with all of our strength to protect the ones we love." She gave both of her children loving look, "Look out of the window, we're almost there…"

Pyrrha followed the instruction and gasped at the sight before her eyes. She saw a sea of ruins that used to be a city… the city of Vale.

She would never mistake the characteristic hilltop where the Beacon academy was placed… that along with the city lied in ruins, with one sole clock tower intact.

"No…" she moaned, feeling her stomach tie in knots. "The Academy…"

"Shortly after you…" Nora paused. "Went missing, it was taken over by the Grimm… but sometime later we managed to re-take it. And after we won the final battle between those responsible for all that happened in Vale… this was the cost of victory…"

Pyrrha looked at the sight in stunned silence, aside from the ruined building; the place was covered in crates of various kinds and sizes.

'Just what is the world?' she thought numbly as they landed near the base of the tower. They left the ship stepping onto cracked pavement.

The amazon looked around, trying to remember how the building used to look. But she quickly stopped that. It was too depressing to think about.

"Where are we going?" she finally asked.

"To our super-secret base located in the–" Nora began.

"The Vault…" Pyrrha finished for her. "Clever, not many people knew about it."

"Indeed, it survived the battle without sustaining much damage." Ren added as they reached the bottom to the tower. He pressed a random brick, revealing a hidden lift. They moved inside and rode down.

"Are you alright Pyrrha, you look pale?" Ren asked with concern.

"I'm fine… just some bad memories." she rubbed her neck uncomfortably. After a few minutes, the lift opened, revealing the familiar hall that was currently filled with people.

Men, women, and children were walking between the grand columns be it with food or some other stuff.

"Welcome to the Beacon!" Nora announced happily. "The last place on Remnant where freedom is… well… free!"

"Let's not keep the others waiting." Ren said, motioning them to come. "Thor, Xi, do your duties as usual."

The kids nodded and moved to do whatever they did around this place while Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha moved deeper into the hall. At some point they turned left and walked in a room with a round table and large screens above it.

Around that table were people that Pyrrha dearly hoped to see… but not all of them.

She instantly recognized Ruby with her signature red cape, she grew a bit and was now almost as tall as Pyrrha but aside from that, she hadn't changed much.

Next to her was her sister Yang. Pyrrha had to stifle a gasp at her appearance. She was missing her left hand and right leg replaced by artificial ones. She also wore an eye-patch on her left eye with a vertical scar going through her face. Not to mention that her hair was cut short, barely reaching her ears. She wore a combat vest with black fur around her neck, with simple shorts similar to what she used to wear during her time as a student of Beacon.

On the other side of the table with his feet on it was Sun. The monkey Faunus managed to put even more muscles and eared more than few ragged scars. His hair was now reaching way beyond the shoulders and was tied in a messy ponytail. He wore the same tattered jeans and as usual ditched the T-shirt in favor of white-sleeveless coat.

On his left was a man Pyrrha wasn't expecting to see.

Professor Ozpin… was sitting in a wheelchair. The man looked old, really old and tired with a net of wrinkles all over his face. His eyes were still sharp as ever, but she could clearly see the exhaustion in them. Not to mention that he seemed to have some sort of collar around his neck that made breathing sounds… his attire hadn't changed at all.

The same could be said about his companion namely one and only Glynda Goodwitch. Like Ozpin, her face was wrinkled and here hair greying matched his. But she looked relatively fine.

But Jaune wasn't among them…

"Well, I'll be damned…" Yang spoke first. "Here I thought you were pulling a quick one on me." she stood up and walked to embrace Pyrrha. "Long time no see P-money."

"Yang," Pyrrha said, sizing her up. "You've changed…"

"Ha! I wish I could say the same about you, but, well, you are kind of stale."

"Never mind, you haven't changed at all," Pyrrha replied but couldn't stop herself from smiling. She was about to say more but was almost tackled to the ground by a blur of red.

"PYRRHA!" Ruby exclaimed happily. "I can't believe it's really you!"

"You believe that I am me, just like that?" she asked slightly surprised.

"Ren said you're ok and people can't lie to him, so yeah." she smiled, taking in the sight. "You look exactly like those twenty years ago."

"Yes… I'm still confused about that too," she replied, retuning the hug.

"Well now I have seen everything, people coming back from the dead." Sun stated, patting her arm. "Good to see you back, champion."

"Likewise, Sun."

She turned to the last pair.

"Professors," she nodded politely.

"Just Ozpin and Glynda Ms. Nikos," Glynda said, returning the nod. She leaned to the Ozpin to listen to what he was saying. "Ozpin welcomes you back in the world of living; he has many questions about that."

"I'm afraid I don't have many answers." Pyrrha told them. "But I too have many questions… just what happened to Vale? What is this Protectorate? What happened after my death? And…." she paused, biting her lip. "Where is Jaune?"

For few moments no one spoke as they exchanged looks.

"Turn on the TV and you will know…" Sun said gravely.

The screens exploded with white light, slightly blinding her.

"Sorry about that, we're still trying to work on brightness on this junk." Yang said.

"Citizens of Protectorate!" a familiar voice sounded from the TV. Pyrrha looked up at the screed actually gasping this time.

Weiss Schnee dressed in a slightly altered Atlas military uniform stood at the podium at full attention. Behind her were lines of armored soldiers holding banners with two bent golden lines on them

"Fifteen years ago the world was at the brink of destruction as the Grimm Witch Salem almost brought the calamity upon us. But at our darkest hour, legions of heroes rose up to fight and defeat the Great Evil… and many paid the ultimate price for it." She paused for the drama effect, "Yet their sacrifice wasn't in vain! We rose from the ashes stronger and more unified than ever! With each year the number of Grimm is decreasing until one day they will be gone forever!"

The crowds cheered, filling the room with their shouts.

"But that wouldn't be possible without the leadership and courage of one man. The man that led our forces into the final battle and slain the Witch himself… Ladies and gentleman! Let us welcome the savior of the world! The Protector!" Weiss announced.

A moment later, the figure walked into the camera lens.

The man was tall with broad shoulders, wearing a high tech white armor with a white cape on it. His blonde hair was neatly combed and his blue eyes seemed to pierce even from behind the screen. The man projected authority and power as the crowd roared as he reached the podium.

Pyrrha's mind turned off at that moment. Her brain couldn't simply process what she was seeing.

" Jaune Arc, the Great Protector of Remnant Protectorate…" Ruby said with a very uncharacteristic glare. "…our enemy."

* * *

A/N

Well let's see how it goes...


	2. Chapter 2

"Citizens of Protectorate! Brothers and sisters!" Jaune's strong baritone voice filled the room. "We gather here today to celebrate our great victory over the terrible darkness! Today was the day when countless Heroes and Heroines gave their life for the future of our world. Fifteen years ago I had the immense honor of leading those brave men and women into one last desperate battle against the accursed witch of Grimm, Salem!" He made a pause, his face twisting in anger. "On the streets of Vale and on the slopes of Beacon Academy, we fought with courage in our hearts and a sense of duty to our people! Human and Faunus together against the countless tides of Grimm!"

He was interrupted by the loud roar coming from the crowd.

"That day many of them paid the ultimate price for our freedom, for our future." His voice turned remorseful, "On that day, we lost many great and noble souls... but their sacrifices weren't in vain!" He bellowed, "Through their death, we grew stronger than we were before! We rebuilt and pushed the Grimm on the brink of extinction!"

This roar thwarted the previous one by dozens of volumes.

"On this day, we also celebrate another anniversary. Exactly ten years ago, our glorious Protectorate had been established. We united the shattered Kingdoms, and from the ashes of destruction, we created a country greater than any other Kingdom! But that wouldn't be possible without YOU! You are the strength in my arms, the pillars of my resolve! We will claim the future together!" He extended his armored arms to his sides, rising them towards the sky. "Because now is OUR TIME!" he roared, accompanied by the crowd as the banner bearers behind him started to wave the flags.

"ARC! ARC! ARC 1ARC!" The people started to chant as Jaune slowly left the stage, waving towards them.

Pyrrha was not sure how she was even standing. What she just seen was so surreal that she expected to wake up in her dorm at Beacon any moment now.

The future.

The war… Jaune.

"Apapapa, let's get you seated somewhere, Pyr." Nora said, leading the paling girl to the closest unoccupied seat. If not for the orange haired woman, Pyrrha would've surely collapsed.

The gathered looked at the girl with pity as the look of disbelief was crept on her face.

"But... how?" Pyrrha whispered, almost in denial, looking around utterly lost. The shy, bumbling, clumsy, insecure Jaune she knew, was now a charismatic and powerful leader of the whole world… she always told him that he had potential, but this?

"It's a really long story, Pyrrha." Ruby said, putting her hand on her shoulder. "A two decades long one..."

Ruby's words hit her like a hammer. Again the feeling of isolation washed over her.

"Geez sis, good job at boosting the morale as always." Yang sighed, seeing Pyrrha's crestfallen expression. "I would give you a summary of what happened, but even that would take a while and probably confuse you even more P-money, so let's give you the update on the current events." Yang crossed her arms, "After the war, everything was in ruins, we won but our very civilization was on the verge of collapse. The Kingdoms slowly turned into savage lands as the governments had no resources to bring back peace anytime soon. Then Arc decided to take things into his own hands." She spat with clear contempt on her face." At the time, he was the general of the last remaining organized Army, made by soldiers from every Kingdom. Seeing as the world deteriorated, he convinced us that action was needed. He succeeded."

"We aided him in his task of overthrowing the ineffective governments." Ren told the story now. "We defeated them one by one, starting with Atlas, as it was the strongest, but with Weiss and the Schnee company support, it was fairly easy. All in all, it took us around five years until we were done. Since what we were doing was new, we also needed a new city, free of the influence of the past."

"NIKOSIA!" Nora butted in, "After all this time of doing nothing, you got a whole city named after you! I'm jealous!"

"Me?" Pyrrha replied flabbergasted.

"You know like NIKOS-ia" Sun chuckled. "It was Arc's idea, man I don't know what you did, but he was still gobsmacked with you."

Sun's comment caused Pyrrha to turn scarlet.

"Sadly, things went south as Arc continued to consolidate his power." Glynda took the lead. "As the time passed, it became abundantly clear that he had a different idea on how the Protectorate should be governed. All of here present wanted it to be a democracy with elected leaders, yet Arc opposed the idea, saying it was too soon to hand the power to the people. He made quite a convincing argument about effectiveness, and sadly at the time, we agreed with him." She adjusted her glasses with a sigh. "Before we realized what was happening, he turned the Protectorate into an authoritarian police state, cracking down on any opposition. He made fools out of us… we went to confront him and we lost."

A grim silence filled the room.

"How..." Pyrrha spoke, feeling her throat as dry as a dessert." How could he defeat you all?"

"It was his semblance Judgment–" Ruby started.

"Reality Hack." Yang interjected, "I refuse to call it anything else!"

Pyrrha looked at them confused.

"Jaune's semblance make him immune to any attack, no matter how powerful." Ruby explained. "It also gives him an immense power boost that literally makes him invincible, the only shortcoming is that it consumes an ungodly amount of Aura..."

"...His reserves," realization dawned on Pyrrha.

"Yes, but even then, he can hold it for a full five minutes before it runs out." Ruby nodded, "He killed my Dad, uncle Qrow, Yang's mom Raven, and General Ironwood in that fight."

Pyrrha gasped in terror. "Jaune?! But... but... What about Blake?" she asked frantically.

"Blake died in the final battle taking down the monster that used to be her ex, Adam Taurus, the guy who cut off my hand." Yang told her with sadness. "To give Arc some justice, my Mother started the killing as he was hesitant to off anyone... she killed Neptune and was about to kill Weiss, but Jaune stopped her, permanently... from there, things went fast. Before we knew it, Arc went all Reality Hack on us and the battle was lost. My dad, enraged by the death of my mother, sacrificed himself to buy us some time to escape. Uncle Qrow and General Ironwood joined him... and paid the ultimate price... and here we are."

Pyrrha felt like fainting from the influx of information. She looked at the gathered with her mouth agape, to confirm if Yang was pulling a quick one on her, but everyone shared the strained looked on their faces.

"Nora, can you bring Pyrrha some water?" Ren asked, seeing the poor girl struggling with what she heard. The Valkyrie woman nodded and left the room, sparing a worried look at the Spartan woman.

"Okay, maybe we should give Pyrrha some time to proce–" Sun began.

"Why? Why did he do that?" The redhead did not allow him to finish, "He's a good person..."

Pyrrha looked at the table, not being able to stomach the looks of pity anymore.

"People change, Pyrrha... out of all of us, he was hit the most." Ren crossed his arms, "But that is a story for another day, now, how about Thor and Xi give you a tour around our base... they should be eavesdropping right now."

Upon his comment, a little commotion was heard behind the doors. Ren gently lead Pyrrha to the doors and handed her over to his sheepishly looking children. "Give her a tour and then take her to dining hall for dinner."

"Sure thing, pops!" Thor saluted, taking Pyrrha by her hand, followed by a face palming Xi. After the doors closed, the atmosphere in the room shifted dramatically.

The silence was so deafening that one could hear pin drop... or a whisper of an old man.

"This... changes everything." Ozpin wheezed.

* * *

Pyrrha had to admit that the Underground was way larger than she initially imaged. It was almost like an underground city. Whole families were here with small children running in groups. They were living in some sort of container houses piled upon one upon another, reaching almost the very ceiling.

Yet the sights did not interest her in the slightest. Her mind was currently a vortex of thoughts and emotions.

How could things turned out so badly? Everything was supposed to be fine until Jaune seemingly went mad with power and turned Remnant into a dictatorship.

Before she knew it, she was sitting at a painfully familiar long table next to Thor and with Xi at the opposite side of the table. She was handled a plate with some unknown mass of organic matter that was supposed to be the best grub around according to Thor. Yet Pyrrha wasn't hungry and was simply playing with the so called food that probably hated her guts.

"Pyr, are you listening to me?" Thor asked, seeing that his question remained unanswered.

"Oh.. sorry, I was just lost between my thoughts," Pyrrha replied, not looking at him.

"Give her a break, brother, she's has enough on her mind, so don't bother her with your ramblings." Xi berated him while sipping her tea.

"Sorry." Thor rubbed his neck sheepishly. "I just wanted to cheer her up a bit so she wouldn't be so sad and all."

"Thank you, Thor.." she offered him weak smile.

An awkward silence fell on the trio. The twins exchanged worried looks, lost on how to cheer the girl up.

"HEY GUYS!" A sudden shout startled them, almost making them jump out of their skin.

A girl carrying a tray with the similar unidentified mass was approaching them. The thing that dew most attention to her was an intense yellow coat with a hood and equally light blonde hair.

"Yo, Summer!" Thor grinned, "You won't believe who we brought here!"

The girl starred at Pyrrha with something akin to recognition.

Then she blinked.

"OMG! You look just like Pyrrha Nikos!" The girl exclaimed, running to her, looking at her from all sides. "You could like totally get a fortune in cosplay!"

Pyrrha suppressed a sigh.

Another fan.

"You think that's awesome!?" Thor grinned. "This girl doesn't just look like Pyrrha Nikos... she is THE PYRRHA NIKOS!"

"Yeah right, she's been dead for twenty years." Summer dismissed Thor words with a wave, eyeing the redhead with her _silver eyes._

"He speaks the truth." Xi said calmly, making Summer pause in her ogling.

"Et tu Xi?" The girl lamented, "At least try to fool me with some quality jokes."

"I'm not joking, why do you think everyone came here today... she is the real Pyrrha Nikos." Xi told her, gravely serious. "We found her yesterday running from the Protectors."

Summer looked at them with disbelief.

"Okay guys, you got me! For a moment, I actually believe–" she began.

"They're not lying, I am Pyrrha Nikos... from the past." Pyrrha finally spoke with a small smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Summer…?"

The girl gawked like a fish.

"Oh… OH! I'm Summer Rose–Arc! Nice to meet ya!" the girl extended her hand, but was too late… for Pyrrha had fainted. Head slammed down on the table with a mighty thud as the trio watched her with wide eyes.

"Oh no!" Thor started to shake her. "What have you done, Summer!?"

"I didn't do anything!" The girl wined, tearing a bit, "She just fainted!"

"Oh boy..." Xi muttered, looking behind Summer. The two teens turned back, seeing Ruby, Yang, and Ren walking towards them.

"Hey guys!" Yang greeted them. "Why Pyrrha is unconscious?"

"I don't know, I swear! She just fainted!" Summer explained quickly. "It was Thor's fault!"

"What!? No it wasn't! It was yours! After–Oh, I'm Summer Rose-Arc! Nice to meet ya–she deiced to take a nap!"

"Oh Boy..." Ruby mumbled, feeling her cheeks redden. Yang burst out laughing while Ren face palmed.

"HAHAHAHAH! When she wakes up, you will have a really good story to tell sis." Yang pattered her arm, "I think it will be Pyryfic!"

Everyone groaned at the horrible pun, even after all that time...goddamn it Yang.

"What does aunt Yang mean?" Summer asked.

"Well... you see…" Ruby started to nervously fiddle with her fingers.

"What my sister and your mother wants to tell is that this sleeping beauty..." She pointed at Pyrrha, "Was really comfy with your asshole of a Dad at one point, even snatched a kiss. If it wasn't for a certain event, you might've had a different mom." Yang explained, "So hearing that you're his kid with Ruby as the mother was probably too much for her..."

"How bad was her crush on dad?" Summer asked.

"Bad, really bad..." Ruby said with a visible trail of sweat on her forehead.

"And what about Arc, aunt? Did he feel the same?" Xi asked.

"He wore a cute dress for her once... in front of the whole school." Yang giggled, remembering better times when everything was still alright.

"I remember! I saw the photos!" Thor exclaimed. "Damn, she looked hot in that dress!" he said with a grin.

"He's spent too much time with your kid, Yang." Ren frowned.

"Blame Sun's genes!" Yang exclaimed with fake offense. "Still, kiddo, don't get your hopes up. Unless you're the ruler of the whole world, I don't think that you're her type." she laughed again at Thor's crestfallen expression.

"Yang!" Ruby uttered.

"What?"

"Stop being weird! It's Pyrrha we're talking about!" Ruby waved her hands.

"That's exactly why I'm acting like this." Yang replied, growing serious.

Everyone except for Ren looked at her confused. He realized what she was doing the moment she said that.

"How would you feel if you were thrown out of your time into a place where everyone you knew moved on with their life's?" Yang said, folding her arms. "Like you weren't even there, like you were just a memory? It might be a little funny for us, but for her, hearing that Jaune had a child with you of all people must been a shock..." She looked at Pyrrha somberly. "We have a lot of work before us to make her feel at home, all of us," she gave the next generation a pointed look.

"You're right, sis." Ruby walked to Pyrrha and stroked her head. "So kids, be nice to her and make her feel at home."

The trio nodded.

"Totally calling, Cao," Thor said, pulling out his phone and texting his friend.

"Don't kill her with testosterone." Yang deadpanned, wondering where she made a mistake in raising her son. He could not wear a shirt even if it killed him.

Never.

"Goddamn it, Sun." she mumbled.

"You say something, Yang?" Ruby asked.

"Nope! Nothing at all." She grinned, "Okay," she walked to the table and picked Pyrrha up, then threw her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Gonna carry P-money to bed, she needs to rest a bit."

"Can I come, too?!" Summer said. "Like maybe when she wakes up and needs something, I can help!"

"Ruby, that's why you should've never told her all those stories, you made her into a fan."

"Hey, who would have guessed that she would've come back to life!" Ruby shook her head. "But let's go, we're making a scene."

The adults left the kids who sat in silence for a few seconds.

"Wow…" Summer uttered with stars in her eyes. "Pyrrha Nikos in flesh..."

"Here comes the fan girl." Xi deadpanned. "Still, we must do everything in our power to make her feel at home."

"Yeah..." Thor said little somberly. Yang's explanation really got to him. "It must be horrible for her with, you know, all of that."

Again, another uncomfortable silence fell on the trio.

"OK!" Summer whammed her hands on the table, startling the not-twins. "No more moping around! It's time to initialize a plan called... HAPPINESS!"

"What?"

"We will do everything in our power to make Pyrrha feel at home!" Summer exclaimed.

"Yes, that was what I said a few seconds ago." Xi sweat dropped, "Airhead."

"Regardless! We will begin planning as soon as Cao gets here! After all, we wouldn't be Team CLTS without our leader!"

* * *

 _Later_

Pyrrha's eyes fluttered open for the second time this day. Looking around, she noticed that she wasn't in cafeteria anymore, but in some sort of room, in a bed.

'I must have fainted when Summer...' her eyes widened when she realized why she lost consciousness.

Jaune and Ruby... had a child.

Jaune and Ruby are... were at some point an item.

Pyrrha suddenly felt the room become suffocating. She needed some fresh air. She put on her shoes and left the room, hoping to avoid anyone familiar.

She needed some time alone.

Sticking to the shadows, she crept through the base without being noticed, albeit she had seen Summer carrying a tray with food in the direction she came from.

Feeling a little guilty, Pyrrha continued her way towards the lifts. For once luck seemed to be on her side as they weren't guarded.

She walked in and pressed the button that would take her to the highest floor. She wasn't sure why she did that or even if the lift would take her there, but she needed to go there, be it for closure or anything else, she needed to see that place one more time.

After what seemed like an eternity, the lift beeped, opening the doors to the office of the man that once stood at the top of the best hunter academy in the world. But for Pyrrha, it would be the last place she remembered of the old world.

She made a hesitant step forward, stepping on the grassy floor.

Apparently Mother Nature took its course and the place looked like a field more than a former office. But what drew her attention instantly was... an altar. She moved closer and felt that her breath get stuck in her throat.

A cascade of emotions ran through her as she read the sign on the altar that wasn't altar at all.

It was a grave... her grave.

With Akuto placed right before it.

Feeling her whole body tremble, she moved closer to read what was written.

In memory of Pyrrha Nikos, 1999-2016, a hero, a friend – We will never forget.

The Spartan girl chocked a sob as she read the line, but that wasn't all. All around it were small metal plates with personal last words from all her friends.

You were the awesomenest person I ever knew! – Nora.

May you find comfort at Monty's side; we will take care of rest – Ren.

You won't be forgotten P-money – Yang.

I'm sorry – Ruby.

You were an inspiration to us all, Pyrrha, your sacrifice wasn't in vain – Weiss.

You will live on in our hearts – Blake.

Pyrrha had do to everything in her power to not fall on her knees. Her heart was beating rapidly as she tried to calm the maelstrom of emotions within her. She was happy that she managed to make so many friends over her short time at Beacon, but at the same point, she was devastated that she couldn't fight alongside them. To share that time with them. To age with them. To love them.

When that last part crossed her mind, she realized that one plate was missing… Jaune's.

She inspected the grave through her teary eyes, but could not spot it. She wouldn't even consider the option that he hadn't left one.

'Maybe it fell off.' She looked at the thick grass. She desperately wanted to know what he felt about her passing.

She activated her semblance and gently tried to bring every metal element up the air. But, sadly, nothing that resembled a metal plate came into view.

Disappointed by the fruitless search, she picked up her rusted shield, feeling surreal. She always treated her equipment with utmost care, cleaning them after every duel to keep them in pristine condition. Her heart would break at the sight of her rusted shield if it wasn't already broken.

She turned it on the inner side, wondering if the handle was salvageable.

She did not expect to see more lines of text inside. Her eyes widened to the size of the platers when she read them.

I'm sorry that I always made you worry about me.

I'm sorry that I was too weak to protect you.

I'm sorry that I didn't die in your place.

I'm sorry that I never noticed your feelings.

I'm sorry that I never had a courage to be with you.

I'm sorry that I never told you how much I loved you.

You will always be in my heart Pyrrha.

I love you – Jaune.

This time Pyrrha fell to her knees, clutching the shield to her chest with rivers of tears flowing down her cheeks.

Ever since she met Jaune, she dreamed of hearing that last sentence. Dreamed about him holding her tight to his chest and whispering those words to her ears. She dreamed of being happy and doing all what couples were doing.

She chocked a sob when the feeling of despair hit her. With the horrible realization that such a chance would never occur again, it felt like another arrow piercing her chest. Making her lungs burn, desperately begging for air that would never come.

She was out of her time, a shadow of the past that had no place in this world. She stood up and slowly walked to the edge of the tower.

Everybody she knew and loved either moved on or were dead. A man she had feelings for turned into a tyrant that alienated even his own daughter and wife, creating a world she could not understand.

People she once laughed with were now adults with children almost her age… strangers.

She was alone in a world full of strangers.

The girl stood at the edge of the tower, looking at the abyss below. How easy it would be to just take one more step forward, to feel wind gushing over her and fall to complete her destiny.

Destiny.

She had grown to hate his word so much.

Why did it have to be her? Wasn't one death enough? Why did fate have to show her what became of the people she cared and loved? Was this some sick joke to torment her even more?

She took a shaky breath, making her decision.

There was nothing left for her here.

She needed to fall... like autumn leaves.

Pyrrha took a step forward closing her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Ruby couldn't recall Pyrrha being good at stealth. Then again, the Champion liked to keep her cards close to her chest and hidden in her sleeve. But no matter how good Pyrrha was, she was still at a Huntress-in-Training level. Not the hardened vet like Ruby level. So the silver eyed woman spotted the girl the moment she was sneaking through the great hall and she had followed her friend all the way to the lifts.

'Hmm, it seems that she's going to the top floor... not good." Ruby bit her lip, unsure whenever to follow her or not. Pyrrha clearly wanted some alone time, yet, on the other hand… her grave was there and there was no telling what she would do.

Deciding to give the girl some breathing room, Ruby went straight to the surveillance room since whole place was covered with security cams in case some wandering patrol or the occasional Grimm would wander nearby. The room was filled with monitors of various sizes operated by half a dozen of men.

"How's the premise?" she asked the men currently on the duty.

"No sign of any activity, Ma'am except for someone at the D-15 zone."

"Ah, yes... would you be so kind and leave the room until further notice?" Ruby asked but the men knew that it really wasn't a request.

While still sometimes childish and silly, Ruby Rose was widely respected by the members of rebellion for her prowess in combat as she was one of very few who could fight the Protector himself head on and hold her ground. Not to mention that she was a walking beacon of light in these dark times. And she always took the extra effort to help everyone even the most insignificant person and listen to their stories.

When the room was emptied, Ruby moved to the screen and watched how Pyrrha wandered a bit around Ozpin's office looking at the change occurred there.

Predictably, she moved to the very center of the room where teams RWBY and JNR built a memorial for her. With the quality of the vision, even the cheapest cameras nowadays provided Ruby more than enough clearance to witness how Pyrrha trembled as she read all those messages they left for her. After a moment, she began looking around the grave, most likely for Jaune's message Ruby deducted.

Ruby sighed, pitying the girl. She could not even imagine what she was going through. Being a brutally emphatic person, Ruby could no longer look at Pyrrha's suffering and deiced to join her and comfort her to the best of her ability.

She moved to the lifts and pressed the button leading to the very top floor. She folded her red cloak to look somewhat presentable, yet she did it more out of habit then the real need. For last fifteen years she's been leading the rebellion. Looking anything less than perfect wouldn't be acceptable.

A ghost of a smile crossed her lips. Weiss would have a field day if she ever heard her thoughts.

The lift beeped, signaling that she reached her floor and the moment the door opened, time seemed to slow down to a crawl for Ruby. Like in some horrible flashback, she was once again in a situation where Pyrrha was about to die.

Her mouth opened in a wordless scream as she had seen the Champion on the edge of the tower with one foot already beyond the edge.

Ever since Pyrrha died for the first time, Ruby cursed herself for being too slow. Her semblance was speed yet she wasn't fast enough to save her friend life. From that day on she tirelessly honed her body and mind, devoting herself to master her powers. It took her only a fraction of a second to activate her semblance. Whenever activated everyone moved at a snail's pace in her perception. so she could witness every milliliter of Pyrrha's body move towards the fall.

'Not this time!' She dashed forward, grabbing the girl's neck and dragging her back to safety.

Everything took exactly one second.

Pyrrha gasped in shock, her eyes snapping open. She fell on her butt, still clutching her shield while looking around disoriented. When she finally realized that she wasn't dead or ever remotely hurt, she looked back, seeing something that was not right. In fact, it was so strange that she was almost sure that it was her imagination pulling a fast one on her for that was no way Ruby would be able to put such a good impression of being utterly, absolutely, complacency, and totally furious without the help of some sorcery.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND?!" Ruby bellowed, actually pulling a very good impression of someone livid. "What did you think you were about to do!?" Pyrrha opened her mouth but Ruby was way faster. "I'll tell you what?! You didn't think at all! How could you even consider jumping off the roof?" Ruby felt her face red with anger. "What would that have achieved?! Do you have any idea what it would do to all of us to lose you again?!"

Pyrrha didn't know what was going on but right now Ruby was scaring her in a Glynda pissed off Goodwitch way.

"Do you want to die again?!"

That question hit Pyrrha like a ton of bricks. She clutched her shield close to her chest, feeling her whole body starting to tremble. She broke the eye contact with older woman and felt her tears starting to slide down her face again.

Ruby really wanted to berate her more Monty help her but she wanted to rip Pyrrha a new one for doing something so incredibly and uttery stupid. But seeing the girl she idolized at one point, crying while hugging her old shield made her anger fade away.

She let out a long sigh, walking in front of Pyrrha before kneeling to her level. She put a hand on the girl's shoulder, feeling even worse as she made her flinch.

"Pyrrha, I'm not going to shout at you anymore… I promise." Ruby said gently, soothing her. She raised her head, emerald eyes meeting silver.

"I'm sorry..."

Ruby didn't even realize how much she missed that phrase coming from her.

"I know, Pyr, I know..." She gave her a small smile. "Now how about we go to my room and talk a little bit?"

The girl nodded, knowing that she really didn't have any say in that matter. Ruby helped her to stand up and lead her to the lift to the undoubtedly uncomfortable ride down.

"So… how did you like the monument we made for you?" Ruby asked as soon as they entered the lift.

"It was... nice?" Pyrrha replied with hesitation, not sure how to answer the question about liking one's quasi grave.

"We really thought long on how to make it grand enough for you." She smiled. "Maybe a sculpture or an obelisk, there were multiple ideas but we settled on this one. You kind of never were into anything flashy things." Pyrrha nodded with an agreement. "So, yeah, simple tombstone with what we felt was appropriate."

"Yes... thank you for remembering me..." she replied, feeling a little bit of happiness that the people who she knew for just a year became such good friends with her.

"How could we ever forget our resident champion?" Ruby chuckled. "Polite and well-mannered but able to pulverize everyone in her path! That's our Pyrrha."

"I wasn't the only talented one there..." Pyrrha instantly told her as the girl's humility kicked in.

"Sure, sure, no one could even get close to the scores you got, don't tell Yang, but she was always livid when you beat her into the ground but always kept her game face up until after she got into our dorms so she could whine about you being OP for hours!" Ruby exclaimed. "It was funny."

The Champion knew what Ruby was doing and she was immensely grateful for it. Last thing she needed was a silent ride down with all those feelings bottled up. And when the ride finally ended, they were back at the underground level. Ruby led her to her office, navigating through the halls and corridors with ease.

Ruby's office was almost sparse in design be it by choice or necessity. The furniture looked like they've seen better days since most she recognized were from Beacon. She had a few shelves for the books and files with an old wooden desk and two comfy looking chairs on both side.

"Sit, would you like come coffee?" Ruby asked.

"Yes please." Pyrrha sat down, putting her shield on the desk. She looked at the documents lying on the table but her eyes were instantly drawn to the framed photo.

A family photo.

Jaune with his arms wrapped around Ruby. He was literately beaming with a look of genuine happiness on his face. The reason was most likely the small bundle in Ruby's arms, wrapped in a bright-yellow material, sleeping soundly in her mother's arms. Ruby was actually a little teary eyed as she was looking at the camera but had a wide smile too.

Pyrrha felt a warmth blossom in her chest at the sigh. Despite dearly wishing to be in Ruby's place she felt a bit better that at the least they had found some happiness in their lives.

"Those were good times..." Ruby commented, handing her a steaming mug of coffee. "We were still drunk on the victory and not only that." She giggled, "Best part of my life."

She sipped the black liquid with dreamy smile. But it fell when her eyes focused on Pyrrha. She looked at her in contemplative silence, thinking on how to approach the issue. She wasn't a psychiatrist but she was good at listening so that might be a start.

"Talk to me, Pyrrha." She said simply. "It's just the two of us here and this room is Yang-proof, I checked."

The girl paused–not that she didn't trust Ruby–but she didn't feel like spilling her guts. On the other hand, the woman stopped her from ending her life, so she deserved to know...

Seeing the inner conflict, Ruby deiced to speak first. "You know… I never had a chance to apologize to you, Pyrrha... I wished so many times over the years that I had been just two seconds faster that day. To some, it wouldn't have been much, but for me, it was life defining moment."

"Ruby, you don't have to–" she began.

"No. If I had been faster, then things might've turned out different. So I'm apologizing now for not being able to save you, Pyrrha." Ruby bowed her head. For a few more seconds, they sat in silence, but then Ruby spoke again. "After that, I trained day and nights to improve myself, we all did… you became a symbol for us and we did all to live up to the honor of being your friends... but that's just a part of the problem, isn't it?"

The girl nodded.

"After a while, Jaune shared with me what you feared the most and I guess I can now understand where you're coming from... being ex-wife of the Protector makes any normal relationship impossible I guess, too much fame can be detrimental. But right now even that is gone and you fell all alone, where everyone you knew moved on or... changed."

"I... when I have saw my gra... the monument and all those words you left for me, it just hit me that I was nothing more but a memory, a shadow of the past... that I have no place that I belong and that I'm useless." Pyrrha finally allowed the flood gates to open. "You all have your own lives and even children almost my age while I have no one left... I doubt that my family is still alive at this point..." Ruby's sympathetic expression told her everything. She swallowed hard just thinking about her parents, but she shoved those thoughts for later. "I just don't know what to do, Ruby... I don't really have a reason to live..."

"Do you really need one?" Ruby asked, placing her hand at top of hers. "You shouldn't live because of some reason or destiny."She noticed how Pyrrha flinched when she said that word. "You're not alone, Pyrrha. All of us are here for you, hell Nora even said that she would want to adopt you if you feel lonely..."

Pyrrha managed to chuckle weakly at the absurd way Ruby wanted to cheer her up.

"I wasn't joking; she really wants to adopt you..." Ruby told her, deadly serious but with hints of amusement in her voice. "So you see? You're not alone, we might be a bit older but we're all still very much the same… so no more jumping off the roof young lady!" she put up a motherly tone in her voice.

"Ruby..." Pyrrha's cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

"I don't really know if what I'm doing is helping you but I want you to know that your life is precious to us all and you're not worthless, we don't know why or how but you coming back was a blessing for us all, so please don't do something like that again Pyrrha." Ruby pleaded, "If you need to talk about anything, and I mean anything, my doors are always open for you and that goes for the rest of us, too. We'll always find a time for you and we will never turn you down."

"Thank you, Ruby." Pyrrha told, feeling tears brim in her eyes. Ruby gave her motherly smile, squeezing her hand. "I'm sorry that I acted so rashly."

"On the bright side you gave me an opportunity to be on time this time." Ruby gave her thumbs up.

Pyrrha, feeling way better, nodded, "Ruby...and I ask you one question?"

"Is it about Jaune?"

"Yes...why did he became this Protector and is fighting you?"

The older woman sighed leaning back on her chair.

"Now that's a complicated question with even longer and more complex answer." Ruby sighed."Jaune he...had it rough, even comparing to all of us the war really did a number on him. After you were gone he thrown himself into relentless training aiming to never fail anyone again. At first Me, Nora and Ren thought it was a good thing, that he managed to move on from your death and focus on the task. But we were only partially right, he…was consumed by vengeance at this time, hiding it beneath the desire to grow stronger no matter the cost. With every battle he slew more Grimm and White Fang, he was becoming an extremely skilled sword master but he was also becoming merciless, going as far as to even torture our prisoners to extract information on Cinder."

Pyrrha gasped in shock, disbelief clear in her eyes.

"He was hiding it well, acting like he always did. He was always saying that he need to dome something and will ,,catch up to us" or something like that...out of all of us Nora was the first who noticed that something was off with him." Ruby chuckled humorlessly." We once tailed him when he went to do his ,,business"...you recall Mercury Black don't you?"

"He was with Cinder and that Mint haired girl yes?" Pyrrha clarified."

"Yes, the same, he was a scumbag and probably deserved what Jaune did to him but...for the first time I was afraid of him, Jaune brutalized him, actually managing to break him and take all the info he needed. Yet he did not stop there he continued what he was doing even after just to cause him pain, just to satisfy his need for revenge. I will never forget the bloodthirsty look on his face when we bust in to stop him. We had a fight- not real one- but it was massive and few times we thought that he would attack us, yes he had some valid points about how the info he got helped up but we could not accept what he was turning into. We tried every way to get to him but nothing seemed to work as his way was ,,most effective" then we used last argument..." Ruby paused.

"What was is?" Pyrrha inquired almost fearing the answer.

"We asked what you would have said if you had seen him like that... he looked like someone stabbed him in the gut. He stormed out of the prison and went somewhere. He actually managed to lose us for a while, but Ren managed to pick his track. We found him outside the city, surrounded by the rotting corpses of Grimm." She closed her eyes, recalling the broken man Jaune was at the time. "It wasn't pretty, but we managed to bring him out of it and set him straight. After that, things got a bit better, with him I mean, generally everything was going down the gutter at the time, but it seemed that Cinder for some reason enjoyed causing him misery. A few months after that, his home town was attacked..."

If Pyrrha wasn't pale during the previous part, now she was snow white. Her stomach twisted in a knot, making her sick.

"He lost both his parents and three younger sisters, if his previous state was bad, this time he turned full time murderer. He went so far as to leave the team and go on a man-hunt on his own... and he was succeeding, taking out whole pockets of enemies. Shortly before his departure, Weiss, Yang, and Blake rejoined us. We traveled throughout the kingdoms following, Cinders path of destruction until Jaune approached us, saying that he managed to pinpoint her base of operation that was located in Vacuo. We gathered teams SSSN, CFVY, CRDL, FNKI, and asked my Uncle to help us. Then we attacked. The battle was fierce, like really the worst one we had till then. Cinder had a massive army of Grimm and White Fang at her disposal, not to mention that she managed to absorb the powers of the another Maidens. We were way in over our heads and I even thought that it was over when suddenly..." Ruby paused, smirking at Pyrrha's tense expression. "Professor Ozpin, Glynda, Oobleck, Port, and Peach busted in and saved our collective asses. We managed to do some epic team up! I'm telling ya' fighting, along the Professors was the most awesome thing ever." Ruby exclaimed.

Pyrrha felt a small smile form on her face. It was good to see this side of Ruby despite everything. "Ekhm... we defeated Cinder and her forces, managing to capture many of them, her included. At that point, we thought that it was all over but we were wrong. Cinder was nothing more than a pawn, a simple mean to an end. The true mastermind behind all of this revealed herself as Salem the Witch of Grimm, the primeval source of the darkness and the true villain pulling the strings."

"I don't understand? What was she?" the girl asked.

"We don't truly know, she had sort of a human body but she was a Grimm. The most terrifying Grimm I have ever seen in my life. With her came a tidal wave of her minions, separating us from Cinder. Then Salem decided to collect what she came for… and drained Cinder of her power as if you would squeeze a fruit. The way Cinder screamed, I will never forget that. When she was done, Cinder was nothing but a husk, still alive somehow but she looked like she aged a century, having turned into shaking, old woman." Ruby stopped as if recalling something bad, "Then Jaune started to laugh."

"Laugh?" Pyrrha parroted.

"Yes, but cackling would fit that better. He even managed to surprise Salem." Ruby added, "She told him that he has some interesting darkness inside...before Jaune lunged forward clashing with her. He was obviously defeated but he managed to amuse her to the point that she let us go… After she and her minions disappeared he moved to the Cinder's body, we all thought that we was going to finish her off but... he just stared at her, saying nothing. He was just looking as she convulsed in pain, at the time, I honestly wished he would have just killed her. After he was satisfied, he turned on his heel and left the ruined base to go Monty knows where until I caught up to him and we had a talk..."

* * *

 _Cinder's Vacuan base, Eighteen years ago..._

"Jaune!" Ruby limped after the Blonde knight that despite the wounds he received managed to walk at quite a pace." Just stop! I mean it!" She shouted. They were now out side the base surrounded by high rock and massive amounts of sand, that could get everywhere, literally everywhere.

Jaune just started to walk faster despite the pain he fell all over his battered body. He really did not want to talk to anyone, especially Ruby of all people for...reasons.

"Ahck!"Ruby yipped as she tripped on a rock and feel flat on her face. That actually made Jaune stop and look at the mess that happened to be his...well he wasn't sure if they were still friends but he guessed that the word comrade would fit it better at this point.

Ruby lifted herself off the ground massaging her forehead with visible bump already swelling on it.

"That's your fault!" She accused pointing her finger at him. Jaune rolled his eyes and turned back to measure his walk." Please! Just hear me out! I promise that I won't follow you then!" She pleaded hoping that the blonde would listen.

Jaune knew that this would be a bad idea. Ruby was in no condition to chase after him and he still had some juice left to outrun her. But something stirred inside him urging him to listen to what he has to say. This small voice that always tired to stop him when he was about to commit some atrocity in the name of the pursuit of Cinder.

The voice that annoyingly sounded like Pyrrha's.

Jaune almost never listened to it. Always finding a justification to do what he was doing and shoving guilt and remorse aside. But now with Cinder's defeat the main object of his hate was gone, or soon will be if her state was any indication. Even with the knowledge that Cinder was just Salem's pawn, he did not even felt fraction of hate towards her in comparison to the flame witch.

Maybe the thought of his action catching up with him caused him to stay and listen to what Ruby has to say, or maybe he was just too exhausted to walk any more.

Ruby took his stillness as a good sign hoping that she would reach him.

"Jaune...we do not think that you're a monster, none of us do..." She started." We all know that you're hurting inside more than any of us and that what you're doing to them...I-we know that you didn't want any of this..."

"Ruby..." Jaune said coldly, so much that Weiss tone seemed cozy and warm." You know nothing."

The girl sighed steeling herself.

"I know that you're a good person inside Jaune, we want you back, with us."

"Do you think I didn't notice the looks you gave me when I approached you with the info about the base?" Jaune turned back facing Ruby." Yang was ready to jump on me at moment notice, while Weiss discretely loaded her rapier, hell even Ren shifted in case I do something!" He exclaimed but soon flattened like a balloon without air. She could clearly see the hurt in his so very tired eyes." I'm just too far gone Ruby...I'll help you as much as I can to defeat this Salem person but after that I'll be gone from your life...forever."

"Jaune you can't be serious!?" Ruby exclaimed jumping, or rather painfully slowly getting on her feet." We're your family!"

He felt a bitter chuckle escaped his throat as word family left her mouth.

"What's so funny?" Ruby frowned feeling that he was mocking her feelings.

"Absolutely nothing...you know that my sisters basically disowned me?" He told her with faraway look in his eyes. His voice sounded like it was about to crack any moment." They found out what I've been doing to the prisoners...and..." His voice broke second later."...I'm just no good anymore Ruby, so just give up on me and forget who I used to be...because that boy you met at Beacon is long gone...I have no family any more, I have no friends any more...I am alone!" He chocked blinking away the tears.

The wind picked up after his comment leaving an extremely uncomfortable silence between them.

"Nope." Ruby said quietly feeling tears pick up in her eyes." If that boy was truly gone why would you have such painful expression on your face? Why would you be so sad over our friends being hostile to you? Why would you hide what you did to those people from us and then pretend that you got those information other way?!" Ruby shouted trembling all over." I know you care about us! That's why in some dumb attempt to protect us you took it on upon yourself! All those burdens! You faced them alone and look where it got you! If you only asked us for help earlier thing would be different! I'm sure of this!"

"How!? How else we would get this far without what I did!?" Jaune bellowed." Would we kindly ask them to spill the beans?! We got Cinder because I went through dozen's of her minions to pin point this base! How can you be so sure of what you said!?"

"I have hope Jaune, no matter how bad things are, they will get better one day..." She moved closer to him putting a hand on his chest." One day this night will pass and things will return to normal."

"The dead won't come back...nothing will be the same." Jaune said feeling ash in his mouth.

"I said normal, not the same...the duty to live on and cherish their memories belong to us living so when we pass and join the Monty we wouldn't' be ashamed to meet them." You're not alone Jaune, we never stopped being your friends...and I'm sure that when your sisters calm down they will realize how much of a mistake they made!"

"I doubt that." Jaune broke eye contact turning back at her." I meant what I said earlier, I'll still help you but I'll keep my distan-"

Jaune almost choked on his own saliva as a pair of arms wrapped around him.

"Ruby what are you doing?" Jaune said slowly.

"Holding you, so you won't run!" She replied burying her face in his back.

"How long do you plan to do it?"

"As long as I need to!" She yelled."...maybe even longer." She whispered blushing. But the thing with Ruby Rose was that she wasn't as discreet as she liked to think and Jaune heard the last part.

He felt his heart skipped a beat feeling something he shouldn't. Yes over the months they traveled they he got close with Ruby, really close but this wasn't the time for such things. Nor he was even a good candidate for her affections…

"Just give up Ruby..there's nothing here for you." He uttered feeling her flinch behind him. He gritted his teeth trying to keep it together but it was becoming harder and harder.

"You might have given up on yourself Jaune but I never will." She said with passion. Jaune didn't need to see that she was crying." Just as you did all those things to protect us I will do everything to help you!"

"I did it for reveng-"

"Liar!, you did it because you don't want to lose anyone else!." She interrupted him."You noble idiot!"

Jaune held an urge to scream. Ruby was always perceptive beast when it came to feelings. No one could really hide from her is she set herself to discover what bugged someone. Just like that with everything she said layer by layer she tore down walls he set around his heart.

"But most of all you regret what you did, even if you laugh like maniac there's always despair in your voice. You don't want to be like that. You are a good person Jaune, nothing will change that, so just stop pretending...and come back to us..." She gulped gathering her courage, swallowing hard. "Come back to me…"

Jaune's teeth were on verge of shattering from the force he was applying. His heart was in almost agonizing pain as he tired to force himself to move forward. Monty forgive him but all he wanted now was to turn around wrap his arms around Ruby. He wanted to hug her with all his might and simply cry in her arms. He wanted her warmth and kinds words like a parched man wanted water.

He wanted to come back to his friends and beg them to take him in. He missed them so terribly that every day was an agony for him.

But he knew that aside from Ruby none of them wanted him back. He couldn't even blame them, he deserved to be abandoned. But as those thoughts passed through his mind, his eyes started to tear up.

He needed to get out to preserve what little dignity he had left.

"I swear that if he won't hug her I'll break his legs!" Nora's voice sounded from behind the nearest rock.

The duo jumped apart startled by the sudden interruption. From behind the rock the rest of team Ruby and Juniper entered the scene with various states of difficulty due to the wounds they sustained.

"G-Guys?" Jaune shuttered stepping back from them." H-hey..." He didn't feel that nervous even before the battle with Cinder where he could die. But with all of his undoubtedly former friends glaring at him he wished nothing more that to disappear. He spared one last look at Ruby before deciding to leave, yes leave not run. Because he was not running from his friends, not at all.

"I gotta go." He said lamely making a step forward.

"Stop right there!" Weiss snapped rigidly stepping in front of him." You're not going to leave until we have a talk, you dunce!"

"You were crying?" Jaune asked dumbfounded as he saw the reddish tint around Weiss eyes.

"Of course not! I just got some dust in my eyes!" She snapped blinking furiously.

" Just so you know we heard everything." Yang said glaring at Ruby." Everything..."

"Then you know that I chosen my path." Jaune tried to stay calm." Just say your part and let's part in peace." A note of dejection could be heard in his tone. Not knowing how deep his comment cut them.

Weiss looked like she was about to explode already drawing breath to verbally slaughter Jaune but was stopped by Ren. He placed his hand on her shoulder saving everyone's eardrums.

"Jaune we're here to mend the bridges not to burn what was left, we still, all of us consider you a friend." Ren began surprising Jaune. He looked around the gathered seeing that he wasn't joking. Everyone, including Yang who was most vocal about his actions had a deadly serious look on her face." I cannot say that I condone what you were doing, more it disgust me to the very core...but I cannot deny that you got results, possibly saving many lives in process. But you will no longer carry that burden alone, my brother. I will help you with that."

"Ren you can't!" Jaune told him frantically." There's no need for you to taint your hands I'll-"

"Shoulder everything on your own? How many times it worked well for you?" The dark haired boy shut him up." We took the information you provided us and yet we looked down on you from our moral high ground...that hypocrisy can go no longer." The stoic boy closed his eyes." We're at war with enemy that won't stop at anything to destroy us, so we cannot hold back either."

"Look Jaune, we...I especially said many nasty things about you." Yang took the lead." Like Ren said I still believe that what you did was horrible but like my lil sister said it was just some dumb attempt to protect us. When you left for the first time I was just so angry that my sister has to be near a person who tortures others...but during our travels I had seen what our enemy is and we cannot fight them with kid's gloves on, so sorry for all I have said before Ladykiller." She smiled weakly at him.

"Jaune I just want you to know that despite the fact that most of your victims were Faunus...I do not hold a grudge against you White Fange had chosen it's path, and it's a path of death and destruction, we have to stop them." Blake spoke.

"You're a dunce." Weiss said." But at least have a brain to not push everyone who care about you away!"

"Weiss...that sounded dangerously like you caring for me..." Jaune muttered unable to comprehend Shnee's words.

The white girl looked like volcano ready to erupt. Again she opened her mouth and again he was stopped this time more directly by Nora.

"Apapapa we don't need our hearing damaged too Weissy." Nara giggled while keeping her hand over the girl mouth." So Jaueny what do you say are you back on board?"

Nora as joyful as ever could not hide the tension. Her eyes were basically begging him to say yes. Those pleading teal eyes felt like a daggers stabbing his heart. To cause his friends to look at him that way was simply agonizing.

His resolve melted like an ice on the desert as the expected onslaught never came.

The acceptance they gave him broke the last metal barrier he set. The tears he was so desperately holding back slid down his face.

Second time he teared down before them.

Second time they broke the darkness that took a hold of his heart. A pair of comforting arms wrapped around him as a pair of silver eyes met his.

"See dummy? I told you that it was nope" Ruby warmly smiled at him.

* * *

Ruby looked at the family photo with a warm smile, recalling better times. She looked at Pyrrha, seeing that she was too emotionally dried to even cry. She was just looking blankly at the table, utterly lost.

"Ok!" Ruby clapped her hands. "We've been sitting here for a while and you look like you have enough for today, it's time for a break." Ruby stood up, motioning Pyrrha to do the same. "I have an idea that will lighten your mood, come on!"

"But I would like to hear the rest." Pyrrha replied albeit standing too.

"You've had enough drama for today; you need to catch some breath and sort things out. Besides, it's in the past; it won't change if you give it one more day."

Pyrrha sighed, true, she was mentally tired but she really wanted to have that part behind her, "If you say so Ruby."

"Trust me, you will feel a whole lot better after what I'm planning for you. Oh! And take the shield."

Pyrrha gave her quizzical look but complied nonetheless.

After a few minutes of walking they entered a room filled with some very advance looking computers and what seemed to be a transparent box with some metal arms in them.

"Sensational!"

Pyrrha's jaw hit the floor with a thud because if front of her stood Penny Polentina who looked almost unchanged from the last time she had seen her. The only difference was that she was now dark haired.

"Penny?" Pyrrha squeaked, flabbergasted." But how? I..."

"You only damaged my vessel, the CPU and all the drives were safe so it's was like you just broke my leg!" she exclaimed with a radiant smile than no person should show in front of someone who bisected them. "But it's so good to see you! I wanted to thank you for our fight! I collected so much data!"

"You're not mad at me?" Pyrrha asked hesitantly.

"Nah, you didn't mean to do it, besides, it revealed a rather fatal flaw in my combat skills and allowed me to improve even further!"

"That's good?" Pyrrha licked her lips, feeling extremely uncomfortable. "Why the black hair?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Oh, you know with me being an android and the fact that gingers do not have souls, this worked out too well... not to mention Yang's puns can get annoying..." A rare look of irritation passed through Penny's face.

One point for Yang! Not even AI is safe from her puns.

"Penny, can you help Pyrrha with her weapons?" Ruby smirked at the redheaded girl's surprise.

"Okey dokey!" Penny weaved her hand, producing a transparent screen out of nowhere with images of Milo and Akuto on it. "Hn, let's see, a standard bronze shield and sword/gun/spear/javelin weapon, neat design, utilitarian yet effective but still slightly crude..." Penny mumbled, missing Pyrrha's offended frown.

She made that weapon herself!

"Okay, I know what to do with that, I'll begin printing right away!"

"Printing?"

"Yes, 3D printers were quite the cutting edge tech twenty years ago. But with Atlas and Protectorate effort we basically made blacksmiths redundant and we can print our weapons in mere minutes. Of course it wouldn't be possible without Penny operating the machinery. She can speed the process by dozen times. Usually it takes a few hours for the weapon to be done but we can have it much faster!"

Pyrrha was positively impressed.

The arms in the transparent box came to life, moving with a high speed. With every second, the parts that would be her new weapon gained shape. As soon as the parts were ready, Penny began to assemble them into Pyrrha's new weapon. In just mere minutes, Pyrrha could recognize the familiar shape of Milo. She felt warmth blossom in her chest at the sight.

The girl was so caught up with what she was seeing that she completely missed Ruby typing a message in her scroll.

True to Ruby's word, after fifteen minutes, a new Milo came out surrounded by waves of steam.

"The shield should take even less time since it's simple." Penny told them, handing a still warm Milo to Pyrrha." Your weapon in now more light and durable compared to the previous version. All the transformations remained but I also added an addition chamber for dust for you melee attack. With that you will be able to deal dust damage, the dust will gather along the blade and upon the contact it, will discharge, giving some spectacular effects!"

"Thank you..." Pyrrha mumbled, holding her weapon tight. "I'm so grateful, Penny."

"Think nothing of it! It's my pleasure to help you out in any way!" The robot girl grinned. "Oh! The shield's is done too!" Penny pulled out Akoúo but Pyrrha noticed a few differences. Namely the curves she used to place her spear were gone, leaving the shield fully round. "Yes, I removed those curves to give the shield a fully round shape and this is why." Penny clicked something inside the shield and in an instant, a row of tiny razor sharp blades appeared on the edge of the shield with audible buzz. "Now you have a saw there too, with all the throwing you do I wondered why you never implemented something like that in it."

Pyrrha withheld urge to face palm. That was genius.

"So there you go! A brand new Milo and Akouo!" Penny grinned.

"Looks really neat, Penny! Great work as usual!" Ruby pattered her back excitedly.

"Yet you still don't allow me to upgrade Crescent Rose…" the girl pouted.

"I'd rather have you upgrade Summer than my baby." Ruby stated with utmost seriousness.

"Your love for inanimate objects is disturbing and that is coming from something between living and inanimate." Penny deadpanned. "So Ruby's disturbing fetishes aside, how do you like your improved weapons?"

"They're wonderful, Penny... but I think that new names are required." Pyrrha said, looking with nostalgia at her old Akoúo. "I'll name the shield Aspis and the weapon Damocles."

"Those are some great names, Pyr!" Ruby clasped her hands, pleased that the girl managed to smile. "Now how about we give those babies a test run?"

"Why not?" For the first time since coming here, Pyrrha felt excitement. "Are you coming Penny?"

"Am I coming?! My circus would have to fry to stop me from seeing Pyrrha Nikos live and well again!"

The trio moved from the blacksmith or rather the printing room to the area that was adapted for training arena. On the tour Thor and Xi gave Pyrrha, they explained that beneath the Vale was a whole system of underground tunnels. While she was aware of that from the breach incident, she never realized how vast it was. And with Rebel activity all over, it was literally and underground city with the bunker as it's beating heart.

The battle ground area, despite its fancy name, was just a wider cave with reinforced pillars so it wouldn't cave in. The rocky terrain was relatively flat and smooth making it perfect for combat.

"Come on, Pyr, give it a test run!" Ruby encouraged her while Penny handed her a fresh clip of dust rounds.

Pyrrha loaded it with ease and moved to the center of the area. Not in mood for warming up, she instantly went for the action. First thing to go had to be adjusting her form to her new shield. Yes, her old Akuou was more comfortable, there was no denying that it allowed her to fight more defensively... well, then she would have to be more on the offense. Stepping forward, she made a wide slash, trying to get a proper feel of the lighter weapon. Then she went to series of vicious thrusts. She felt that her mind went into battle mode, pushing aside everything except a set of practiced moves. Hundreds upon hundreds of hours of training and spars were coming back to her. Without even thinking, she transformed her sword into a spear, imaging fending off a larger beast with her additional range.

Thrust to the throat, heart, gut, next.

Without much thinking, she threw her shield, activating her semblance and the chainsaw at the same time. With an ominous buzz, the shield flew forward, cutting the imaginary opponents one by one. At the same time, she went for the more anti-human approach, taking a spear in both hands twirling it around, hacking and slashing at an insane speed all while controlling the shield.

Pyrrha was so caught up with her imaginary fight that she missed the gathering crowd. Yang, Sun, Nora, Ren, team CLTS, Ozpin, Glynda, and a numerous more onlookers came to witness the legendary Pyrrha Nikos.

And the not so dead legend didn't disappoint. Her moves were quick and precise yet fluid and smooth at the same time. There was no break or imperfection in her rhythm. The shield was now circling around her, creating a barrier of sparks as Pyrrha's was nearing the end of her simulation. With a final twirl, she activated the dust mechanism making the blade of her spear glow red.

With one final slash, she hit the ground, creating a sizable crater. After the dust settled down, Pyrrha took a deep breath, feeling content. She was startled by thunderous applause that came from the gathered audience that she just noticed. Feeling heat rush to her cheeks, she returned the shield to her arms and reverted the spear into its sword form.

"It seems that you didn't lose your skills over the years, P-money!" Yang grinned, walking up to her and inspecting her new weapons. "Old yet totally new at the same time, neat job T-1000!"

A spark went inside Penny's eyes... or it was Pyrrha's imagination.

"But how about you give those babies a true test run?" Yang's face gained a sly look.

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha dared to ask.

"I'm glad you asked! Let me present you the final member of the Team Colts! Cao Wukong!" Yang announced, pointing at the blond, duh, boy with already apparent abs on his belly who wore a gray tactical vest with no shirt at all. With attrition, he wore black trousers and heavy military boots.

"Why doesn't he wear a shirt?" Pyrrha blurted out. "It's chilly in here."

"His body rejects shirts." Yang mumbled, giving her first born son a very nasty glare. "Crap genes from his father."

"Oj! I gave him all the best I had!" Sun crossed his arms.

"Mom, Dad, can you please stop embarrassing me in front of everyone with your who's the worse parent rant... again." Cao said, crossing his arms in similar manner to his father.

"Then wear a goddamn shirt already!" Yang snapped, producing a white T-shirt out of nowhere.

"NEVER!" Cao stepped back only to be slapped by Xi in the back of the head.

"Focus. We came here for a reason." she nagged him.

"Oh, yeah, sure...PYRRHA NIKOS!" HE pointed his finger dramatically at her. "I challenge you to a duel-GYACK!" He hissed when Summer socked him in the arm.

"Be more respectful, Cao!" Summer exclaimed with a threatening look on her face.

"Psycho-fan, Psycho-fan…" Thor mumbled to Cao, poking himself in the temple.

"Well no deal, Cao." Ruby interjected before Team Colt's civil war erupted." What I meant was for all of you to go against her."

The quartet looked at her in silence.

"No offense Aunty, but that's hardly fair." Cao stated.

Nora had to stifle a giggle while Ren's face grew mightily blank, indicating that he was hiding his expression too.

"Why don't you give it a try then, Cao?" Glynda said, pushing Ozpin's wheelchair closer.

"4 on 1 isn't fair Granny!" he continued to protest, making Pyrrha splutter when she hear what he called Glynda Goodwitch.

"Okay, enough talking! Kids, get ready to fight!" Nora interjected with excitement. "Show her what Team CLTS can do!" she cheered.

"Okay, if you say so, let's see if she lives up to her fame!" Cao cracked his knuckles, moving forward with his team behind him. "Don't worry Pyrrha; we'll give you a handicap!"

* * *

Five minutes later…

"WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME, MOMMY?" Cao screamed in bloody terror while leaving a nail marks as the invisible force was dragging him towards his doom!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Pyrrha eyed her opponents with calculating gaze. She had little to no information on the team she was going to fight. She was only aware of Thor using Maghild but his semblance was a mystery with the other three being a total enigmas.

But it wasn't first time she had fought opponents with unknown skill set.

'Never underestimate your opponents' A voice of her teachers echoed through her skull.

The cave terrain was flat, open area without covers so she couldn't use it to her advantage ,but on the other hand all of them were three years younger than her which meant that she had that many years of experience over them.

Still she had new weapons that she had get used to so that put her at slight disadvantage.

"As usual we fight till the aura gets into red." Glynda announced." Everyone ready?"

She got five nods.

"Begin!"

Everything happened instantly. Team CLTS lunged forward with Thor and Cao on front. Nora's son pulled out his hammer while Cao activated his gloves that turned into something that looked like Ember Celia but with much more futuristic edge. The gloves were much more smooth looking less bulky than Yang's version. They were peal white with golden stripes going vertically on them.

'So they act as tanks of the team.' Pyrrha braced herself for the assault. 'Meaning!'

The moment the boys were about to collide with her she made a jump back and slashed her blade into surprised Summer's face.

The girl blocked it wither her ,duh ,scythe and was promptly pushed back by the sheer of brute force. Pyrrha had about a second to examine her weapon.

It wasn't a standard scythe for it had another blade at other edge of the staff. Plus it was slightly more curved than Ruby's weapon almost giving it a sickle look. The weapon was pitch black with yellow elements similar to the design of Crescent Rose.

Not having anymore time to ponder she had to use her semblance to stop the barrage of needless coming straight for her vital points, courtesy of Xi who was in mid swing with her whip.

Yes a whip.

The weapon was made out of many smaller blades with a pointed tip at the very end. With addition of the needless Xi proved to be annoying opponent.

In the corner of her eyes Pyrrha saw Thor descending on her with his hammer raised high. Again with help of her semblance she redirected his hammer almost making it hit Cao.

"Woah!" The blonde boy jumped back to avoid being plummeted.

"Thor what the h-" He could finish as Pyrrha used the distracting to enter into his guard. With one powerful thrust she stabbed him right in the middle of the chest sending his back flying.

Not stopping for a second she transformed her sword into a rifle and started to snipe the remaining three forcing them to retreat.

The problem with damage focus teams were the lack of defense. In the times of Team JNPR, Jaune and her could cover Ren and Nora from the any ranged attack. Here it was all member for him or herself relying on the agility alone.

A flaw that Pyrrha mercilessly exploited. She focused her fire power on Thor since he was least agile scoring few hit on the boy.

"Litte help here!?" He shouted frantically dodging the shots.

"On it!" Summer separated her scythe into two sickle like blades. Then she opened fire.

As if her weapon wouldn't be a gun.

The barrage forced Pyrrha to break her assault and hide behind her shield. Yet she did not remained still. Seeing that Thor had the lowest aura level out of all of them she charged at him transforming her weapon into a spear.

Thor grinned seeing her run towards him. He grabbed his hammer tighter and activated his semblance enhanced attack.

The hammer burst with flames with his hairs glowing orange giving an imitation of fire.

"HIYAAAA" the boy rushed forward with battle cry. Thor swung his hammer aiming for Pyrrha midsection but the Spartan was too nimble to be hit by that. In almost dance like fashion she rolled beneath the swung pooping out at Thor's unprotected side. The boy was good and had nice reflexes but was painfully under experienced when it came to wide, flashy attacks. With one precise strike she struck his side making him wince in pain despite his aura protecting him, albeit it was already down to orange.

One good hit and the boy would be down. She aimed her spear straight at his chest but Cao deiced to make a dramatic return.

Predictably his gauntlets were shotguns so with barrage of shots he had driven Pyrrha back from his weakened friend and engaged her in CQC. His style was very close to Yang's yet his Faunus heritage gave him an edge in reaction time and agility.

What she wasn't expecting were a pair of shotguns installed in his boots.

Not dissimilar to the late Mercury Black.

Cao suddenly started to kick at rapid succession sending white bolts of dust at her pushing her into defense.

Second later Summer with her sickle blades and Xi with her whip were upon her strengthening the pressure on her.

Yet if they could see her face they would be puzzled.

Pyrrha was smiling, genuinely smiling. This was what she knew about. This was what she excelled in. She blocked, dodged, stuck and parried taking the three of them at the same time. Every time their weapon connected sparks flew in all direction. Pyrrha turned into a storm of motion as she hadn't paused for a second being able to control the battle. She could see the look of shock on their faces as she managed to put a pressure on them actually forcing them on the defensive.

Seeing that Thor was behind his teammates catching his breath Pyrrha transformed her weapon into the javelin and despite the team's best attempts to stop her, she threw it.

The projectile hit it's mark square in the chest knocking the air out of his lungs. Thor's aura fell into red as he was thrown on the ground making him lose his hammer in process.

"HA I won the bet!" Yang's shout could be heard in the background followed by Nora's wail.

The team CLTS pressed in their attack since Pyrrha was now down to a shield but they were in shock.

The only time they were down a member while inflicting no damage whatsoever was when they fighting a professional hunter not a girl three years older than them.

Yet Pyrrha's aura bar was still proudly green.

"Xi." Cao said, his voice devoid out of any amusement.

The raven haired girl nodded and disappeared out of the sight. Pyrrha frowned.

Invisibility semblance, extremely problematic...for someone who could not counter it.

Her semblance not only allowed her to control metal. She could also feel it, almost like a metal detector. It was a passive ability that came along with her polarity but if often proved vital against hidden opponents.

She did not advertise it.

Every bit of metal on Xi acted as guiding light for Pyrrha as Xi moved behind here when she was occupied with the other two.

She pretended not to realize that focusing on other other two opponents. Pyrrha recalled her weapon transforming it into a sword in mid-air just in time to bloc a vicious slash coming from Summer.

The girl was skilled both with use of the scythe as she was with the use of her twin sickle swords. Her strikes were precise and fluid, yet as the rest of them they were showing signs of the lack of experience. They were too repetitive with visible pattern in them.

But with Cao supporting her with his rather unorthodox fighting style balanced that giving Pyrrha little opportunity to to deal any substantial damage.

It was time to fully test her new weapons.

She activated the dust chamber making her sword glow red with fire dust. The young teens seeing that wisely broke their attack awaiting her next move.

None of them could foresee for Pyrrha to spin on her heel and slam the sword right under approaching Xi's feet.

The girl yelped as her aura too a burst of explosion. Like her father she was able to deal crippling damage but her aura was relatively small. But what stunned her even more was the fact that Pyrrha was able to pinpoint her despite her using her semblance.

Xi would be inclined to think that this was an instinct or stroke of luck if not for a shield ram that actually broke her aura sending her flying away.

The girl decided to ponder of that after she regained consciousness.

Pyrrha turned to the two remaining opponents seeing that they took a step back gulping in fear.

Cao and Summer exchanged glances feeling that their options was running out.

To tell the truth Summer always thought that Pyrrha's Invincible girl was a bit of a stretch but right now she could witness first hand why exactly the Spartan girl had such reputation.

"Don't lose focus." Pyrrha admonished making the teens snap out of it." Even in face of superior opponent you cannot lose hope nor show fear."

If only the two how deeply Pyrrha believed in those words.

"Get ready."

No sooner those words left her mouth she dashed forward turning her sword into a spear while activating a hidden saw in her shield.

She threw her shield at Cao, taking her spear on two hand engaging Summer in vicious clash. The girl put her scythe together to nullify the length disadvantage.

Summer slashed and cut yet none of her hit could reach Pyrrha and the girl parried and ducked under every hit. The girl started slashing even faster but it was nowhere near the level that could seriously threaten Pyrrha. She avoided the blades by skin's teeth, actually prolonging fight to see what the girl got.

Pyrrha was really impressed. If she was she three years younger Pyrrha wouldn't be sure who would won a bout between the two.

But she wasn't.

Recalling her shield she suddenly jumped to the side letting it pass through her right into surprised Summer. The girl took the hit head on having air kicked out of her lungs.

She hit the ground painfully feeling that her aura was all but depleted meaning that Cao was the last one standing.

The boy was sweating bullets at this point. Scratch that he started to sweat when the Champion from the past offed Thor.

To his credit he did not freeze, instead charged in while Pyrrha's back was turned to him. Not very honorable but right now his pride and future years of recalling his empty boasts were at stake. He had to make this one last opportunity count. With battle cry he jumped into the air with his first raised high

"Take that-ompf!"

Only to be viciously countered by powerful back kick.

Pyrrha's leg was like a spear no pun intended making Cao's eyes bulge out as the ridiculously powerful force behind it dug into his stomach.

Then the kinetic force came into action and Cao was sent flying over the length of the area right under his facepalming mother feet.

"Momma h-help me..." He wheezed clutching his abused stomach.

"At least score a Phyrric victory." Yang replied making everyone cringe.

Cao looked at his mother with utter betrayal in his eyes. Then he felt his body being pulled to the red terror of death that happened to be Pyrrha.

"WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME MOMMY!?" Cao screamed in bloody terror while leaving a nail marks on the ground as the invisible force was dragging him towards his doom!

Few seconds later he felt a cold blade pressed to his throat.

"Yield."

"I YIELD! MONTY ALMIGHTY I YIELD!" Cao screeched in very girl like voice.

The lights turned orange signaling the end of the match.

"Winner Pyrrha Nikos!" Glynda announced with actual smile. Saying those words made her feel twenty years younger.

Back when times were much more easier.

"I expected her to beat them but..." Ren looked at the annihilated team CLTS with both his children out of cold, Summer lying flat on her ass with stupid grin on her face while Cao was rocking back and fort while lying on his side.

It was a massacre.

"Looks like Pyrrha reaaaaaly needed to let some steam go." Nora giggled walking to her fallen son," Ewwwww." She picked up Thor from a puddle of self made saliva and like a sack of potatoes threw him over her shoulder. Then she proceeded to do the same thing with Xi.

"I'll see to them later." Ren stated trying to not look amused.

"Nah they have my genes they'll be up in no time! Right kids?!" Nora bellowed shaking them mercilessly.

"The pain..." Xi mumbled through the unconsciousness.

"See? She's already recovering!" With laugh the moved out of the training area. Ren cracked a smile." Looks like you really needed vent some steam Pyrrha." He said towards the approaching girl.

"I'm sorry I might get slightly overboard."

"Nonsense, they kids needed to be taught a lesson!" Yang stated folding her arms under her breasts.

"What kind of lesson was that?" Sun pointed at his rocking back and forth son.

"To wear some god damn shirt! Then he might have got my help!"

"Honey I think you developed some sort of shirt obsession at this point." Sun mumbled.

"No shirt!"

Ruby felt a little bloody tear slid down her cheek.

"You never change do you Yang?" Pyrrha asked. The blonde was about to retort but stopped herself from it. The gentle, smile of the Red-head face told her volumes of how much she appreciated it.

Yang grinned inwardly. It looked like her assumption was spot on.

"Well you know me, why change perfect?" She shrugged wrapping her prosthetic arm around Pyrrha's shoulders." How bout we go for few drinks to celebrate your return?"

"I'm not sure if I can drink." Pyrrha was slight perplexed at being offered alcohol.

"Nonsense, technically you're almost forty so come on P-money! Let's have some fun!"

Before Pyrrha managed to protest she was dragged by Yang most likely to the nearest alcohol source.

"Is it wise to indulge Pyrrha with alcoholic drinks?" Penny asked." It's a know depressant and in her current state it might not be wise to stimulate her in such way."

"I'm sure that Yang will keep the semblance of rationality there...I think." Ruby rubbed her chin." Maybe I should go with them just in case"

"I'll join you." Ren offered.

"Me too!" Summer suddenly materialized at her mother side.

"Weren't you knocked out?" Ruby asked incredulously.

"I was!" Summer chipped. " But it was sooooo cool! We couldn't even land a solid hit on her! She's so AWESOME!"

"Calm down Summer." Ruby patter her head." Pyrrha was the best of our year, heck she was so good that once she beat a fourth year. After that it was never one on one, not that it would change anything other than her getting hit few times."

Summer looked like he was about to explode in rainbows and sunshine.

"I'll collect my comatose son and maybe join you later." Sun promised moving to take care of his descendant.

"I'll accompany you too, seeing Pyrrha drunk for the first time will be sensational!"

"I'll remain here to fix the arena." Glynda told them waving her crop to fix numerous holes in the floor.

The group left moving to the most probable place where Yang would take her, namely the underground club owned and lead by Senior.

Because he was far too old to be called Junior anymore. The club was located directly under the ruins of his previous establishment. The beverage cellars were now adapted and expanded and now were serving as a bar.

Due to security reasons the music was forbidden so it was only a club in name.

Yet still Senior insisted that the name would remain. Who would have thought that his life-long experience in smuggling and other criminal activities would come in handy…

The establishment looked like it have seen better days. The furniture were old and mismatched with the bar being only piece of equipment in the pristine condition shining among the old cracked wood.

It was not hard to find Yang since she was the loudest among all downing mugs of beer like a spring water. On the opposite side Pyrrha sipped her beer making faces at the bitter taste.

Yet Yang did not allow her to stop constantly forcing her into toasting.

"Oh come join us guys! I was getting right to the good part!" Yang waved at them, ordering two more beers and a juice for Summer." Where was I?"

"On the part where you were defending cliffs of Mistral." Pyrrha supplied.

"Ah yeah, so the sky was dark with Nevermores and Griffon circling around the besieged city with every possible manner of Grimm pouring in through the crack in the wall, when we thought that everything was lost suddenly my little sis." Yang wrapped her arms around her neck drawing her close." Decided to go all silver eyes on those Grimm! In one moment we were flooded then seconds later every Grimm in the eye sight was frozen to the bone, which resulted in short rain of air grimm, I'm telling ya is was a grim weather that day."

"I've been hearing about Ruby's silver eyes power few times already but what exactly are those powers?" Pyrrha asked finishing her mug and ordering another one. The beer wasn't that bad after all.

"Well apparently I come from an ancient bloodline of Grimm slayers. In the times before dust all hunters could rely on was aura and semblance. Hunters used to be much more powerful than they are now, with only the strongest of strong being able to survive with their primitive weapons. In those times there was a third power among the hunters that now is basically extinct. It's name was Bloodline." Ruby paused to let Pyrrha process it." Nowadays only selected few families possess it including mine and Weiss. Apparently my bloodline was the one designed to specifically combat Grimm or to be precise evil."

"Evil? that's broad and subjective." Pyrrha told her.

"Yeah, the thing is that Grimm are being born out of pure negativity but they're not the only ones tainted by evil. Human can be rotten to the very core too filled with as much evil as Grimm. I do not exactly know how my Bloodline decides who's evil and who's not. For example I might fight two different opponents at the same time, one will get affected while other don't despite they're want to harm me."

"If it's so random isn't there a danger to your allies as well?" The Redhead asked, genuinely interested by her friends powers.

"Yeah the less stellar individuals on our side..." She gave pointed look at the bar where the gray haired man was cleaning the glasses resided." Have to stay quite away from me or had to since I can now focus my powers on a single target without harming everyone around. Against a person who my bloodline do not deem evil my power is useless, nowadays I rarely use it since Grimm are scarce within the protectorate and common protectors are just people doing their jobs."

"What about Jaune?" Pyrrha could not help but ask.

"He's unaffected for some reason, and he definitely qualifies as evil, trust me on that." Ruby mumbled, cursing the randomness of her bloodline under her breath.

Pyrrha wanted to say that this might indicate that he wasn't evil but she felt it wasn't appropriate. A lot of the story was still shrouded in mystery and she had to wait till tomorrow to hear the rest.

"I see that your skill hadn't dulled in the time you were gone." Ren told her with small smile.

"I'm sorry, maybe I should go easier on them."

"Humility is an important thing in life, the sooner they learn it the better."

"Exactly!" Yang agreed strongly.

"You are not the best person to lecture others about humility." Ren remarked making every laugh. After the laughs died Ren's face turned serious. "Pyrrha I would like you to come with us back to Nikosia tomorrow."

"What for?" The girl asked curiously.

"You will be installed in our unit and operate under Nora and Me." Ren explained."We don't want you to join any combat oriented unit , since you are not that well versed in the strategy of the enemy. Our unit specialize in smuggling and vetting the potential new members of our rebellion and gathering info. During that time Nora and me will train you to expand your skill set and teach you few things about camouflage, infiltration-"

"Wait a moment how camouflage and infiltration works with Nora?...no offense." Pyrrha added after thought.

"She's a distraction."

Yeah that could definitely work with Nora. Pyrrha had to sniffle a giggle when she imagined Nora sneaking behind a building saying sneaking, sneaking effectively blowing any cover.

"I see." She coughed diplomatically.

"So what do you say Pyrrha?" Ren cut to the chase.

"Well like you said, I need to learn more about this world so I think that it's the most logical option. My combat skills are now insufficient and outdated so I'll need some time to improve."

"I wouldn't call them insufficient and outdated..."Summer mumbled under hear breath, but loud enough for Pyrrha to catch it.

"Thank you." She offered a smile." If I may you're very talented with the use of your weapons but I have seen few flaws in your technique so if you wouldn't mi-"

"Of course not!" Summer interrupted her in mid-word. " I would be so honored if you trained me!"

Pyrrha wanted to say give her few pointers but the look of pure delight on Summers face melted her resolve to say no to her.

"Then we'll settled." She offered and award winning smile. Making the girl sequel in joy. In the past Pyrrha would sigh at such balant fan mentality. Yet right now it gave her the much needed familiarity. Not to mention that she promised herself to beat it out of Summer.

"You never were so excited with training with me..."Ruby pouted making Yang pat her shoulder.

"Back to the matter at hand." Ren spoke." We'll be leaving at the crack of the dawn so it'd better to go to sleep early. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

Pyrrha opened her mouth looking at Ruby. She really wanted to hear the rest of the story.

"Ren and Nora will fill you in, they were there too." Ruby smiled taking a sip of her beer." Don't worry in a week you will be back here."

"I have to wait whole week to train!?" Summer lamented." So unfair!"

"Patience is a virtue Summer." Pyrrha stated instantly calming the girl.

"Okey..."

"She never listens to me like that..." This time Ruby was in full-time moping mood.

"Well you can always sent her to dad for few weeks, technically you're still married." Yang nudged her sister.

"You didn't divorce?" Pyrrha asked perplexed.

"I kind off wasn't expecting a full blow war when we went to confront him and after that there wasn't much occasions to fill the papers, nor to go to court." Ruby explained with blush.

"Can you imagine the amount of alimony? Or getting half of what he own?" Yang joked." Maybe we should try to go to a court after all."

"I calculate the probability of success of this action as 0,...a lot of zeros, 01%" Penny supplied." Also I calculate that there's a 45% chance that if you." She pointed at Pyrrha." Don't go to bed in next 15 minutes you will be tired next day and unable to grasp everything thrown at you tomorrow."

"Way to crush the party Ultron." Yang sighed finishing her beer in one go.

"I also calculate that there's a 99% chance of your arm malfunctioning next time you come for maintenance." Penny gave Yang sweet smile.

"Why not 100%?" Yang the ever daring asked.

"Is anything a 100% sure? I might have a good day and forgive you for those horrible nicknames."

"Anything but existential philosophy Penny!" Yang begged.

"As amusing as it is, we have to go now." Ren told them standing followed by Pyrrha." See you in a week."

"Thank you all for everything." Pyrrha stated with true gratitude." I will help you as much as I can."

"Don't sweat it P-money." Yang grinned at her." That's what friends are for, Summer maybe go with them cause you won't see you crush for a whole we-"

"She's not my crush!" Summer yelled looking with horror at her and at Pyrrha.

"-ek, now shoo, off you go!"

The trio left the bar leaving the rest behind. The moment they were sure that Pyrrha was out of the reach the cheerful atmosphere was gone.

"Penny..."Ruby began.

"I'm already working on the combat armor for Pyrrha, as per your request the tracking devices in her weapons are on line and linked to both yours, Ren and Nora's personal scrolls." Penny paused."Is Pyrrha untrustworthy?"

"No Penny, she is one of the most honest and honorable people I ever had the pleasure to know." Ruby replied with sigh." It's just that she do not understand this world and still hopes that we somehow exaggerate what Jaune did, almost every with her conversation steers there. I'm afraid that she could try to reach to him on her own and meet a nasty surprise."

"We need Ren and Nora to show her why people try to escape the protectorate." Yang added." To show what Arc had become."

"Do you plan to use her against him?"

The next question caused two sisters to go silent pondering on that thought. It crossed their minds, few times since Pyrrha's return. As cynical as it was Pyrrha was a secret that when used at the right time could shift the scale into Rebels favor and ultimately overthrown the government.

Yet that would all boil down to one thing.

Killing Jaune Arc.

Right now both sisters were certain that Pyrrha would never help them in any way towards that goal. It would take time to convince her that is was necessary for the future of the world.

"Not yet Penny, not yet."

* * *

A/N

The prologue is officially over! Now the real action can start!

Now on to the questions that flood my PM most often.

1\. Jaune will appear but not that soon. For now we will be seeing things mostly from Rebels perspective.

2\. Blake is dead **permanently.**

3\. I'm not accepting OCC characters

Kay that's all. Don't forget to drop a review if you liked the chapter!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N It's not beta read version so sorry for all mistakes and typos!

* * *

Chapter 5

Pyrrha…

Pyrrha…

PYRRHA!

"GASP!" Pyrrha awoke suddenly, sitting uptight. She looked disoriented around the unfamiliar room remembering where she was.

The Lie-Valkyrie family home/hideout. They came back from the rebels HQ late at night so Nora announced that it was bed time and even threatened to read her bedtime stories if she refused to go to sleep.

Their home was located in the poorer district of Nikosia. Shortly after the war there was a dire needed for cheap and mass produced housing resulting is whole parts of the city made out of identical, bleak gray blocks. One could simply disappear in the crowds of people or among buildings.

After few years the buildings served it's functions people started to slowly build their homes and houses in much better standards leaving the communal buildings for poor. So it was not difficult to buy few whole blocks as their prices nose dived

After all no one wanted to live among the poor and misfortunne their whole life's.

As such the rebellion adapted those building to their own needs and made a whole web way beneath them linking it to the city sewer system. In that way they could easily smuggle people in and out.

One could ask how such operation went under Protectors noses?

If you add hostile to authorities local population, strategically placed men and women at key sewer management system and one master interrogator/ organizer ,such feat would be very much possible.

With Ren's bright leadership he slowly build a secure net of spies and strongholds over the whole protectorate with it's beating heart right under Jaune's nose.

Every time asked he calmly denied that it was an indirect insult towards his former brother. To make it even more ironic the network operated much like late White Fang with it's decentralized structure. Each rebel cell was always on need to know basic with bare minimum information about others. That way even when the agents of the dreaded Bureau of Internal Affairs or Masks as the people called them, they wouldn't even be able to to compromise entire network. It was not that Ren did not trust his own men. He just knew how effective Masks were at breaking people.

Ren warned Pyrrha that if she ever came across those people she had to run, because there was no escape from their clutches.

Pyrrha stretched feeling her joints come back to their rightful places with pop and left the room feeling hungry. In the kitchen she found Nora and Ren with the former making breakfast humming a happy tune while the other was reading his scroll.

"Good morning." Pyrrha greeted them. Almost as soon as she sat a plate full of, surprise, pancakes with syrup appeared before her.

"Eat up! You have a busy day before you!" Nora announced handling her a steaming cup of coffee.

"What do you have planned for me?" Pyrrha asked taking a bite of surprisingly good pancake.

"The kids will take you around the city to show you the main communication routes and more informal ones and generally familiarize you with the current time and events so if asked you wouldn't stand out too much," He sighed after he read something on the scroll." It will take a while, every evening either me or Nora will take you to our training room to hone your skills to true hunter level."

If his comment stung Pyrrha did not show it.

"So just you know I won't be going easy on you!" Nora grinned." You will be in a training of your life!"

"Nora we cannot afford new training gym." Ren reminded her. Pyrrha on the other hand should feel slightly offended that he was worried about the building not her well being.

"Don't worry I'll try so every hit lands!"

Now the red head was positively worried about her well-being.

"What's for breakfast mom?" Thor entered the kitchen dressed in only pants. He opened his mouth to say anything but shut it with click when he saw Pyrrha in her night gear which consisted of tank top and pants.

"You will get blind from that much staring son." Ron told his son calmly truing him into spluttering mess.

'Was I like that when I saw Jaune few times?' Pyrrha mussed, more amused by Thor's reaction. She had quite a sheer of horny teens...and adults after her in her life.

"Hey..." Xi came too and it seemed that Ren's dislike for early mornings was passed too, as she yawned sitting sleepily at the table.

"Listen up kids." Nora gave her daughter a cup of coffee." Show Pyrrha around the city all main districts and make sure that she knows where the ,,I need to get out of here" roads are and do not piss of the Protectors." Nora gave her son very pointed look." So no taking Magnhild with you."

"But mom!" Thor whined.

"Grenade launcher/hammer is way too flashy for today's standards." She flicked his nose making him red. "Now eat up get dressed and tell Pyrrha how to use optical camouflage."

"Optical Camouflage?"

"We'll explain on the way." Xi told Pyrrha coming back to life with every sip of her coffee. " You didn't think that the children of know terrorists and criminals could walk freely around the city?"

Now that the girl said it Pyrrha felt slightly stupid about asking.

"So that is why for next few days you will bring her up do date about our wonderful present." Nora chipped." Now shoo you have a lot do to today. And don't forget your lunch!"

The teens left the kitchen to get dressed and in ten minutes they were ready to go.

"Here." Xi handled Pyrrha a small, flat round object that looked like a coin. When she looked more closely at it, it was a coin…

With Jaune's face on it.

"Now hold it before your face." She instructed and pulled out her scroll. Pyrrha followed the girl worlds and soon a small light emitted from the center of the coin. Xi typed something in the scroll and smiled slightly." Put it back in your pocked at look in the mirror.

"Wow..." Pyrrha uttered looking at the person in the mirror." The girl she was looking at had a dark raven hair with chocolate brow eyes and tanned skin. She turned back to look at Xi and Thor which put on their camouflage too. Yet it was appurtenant that they had more advanced version. Not only did it change their hair, skin and eye colors but also their featured got modified.

Thor now had a blonde hair tied in messy pony tail with light blue eyes and extremely pale white skin. His nose got smaller with addiction to slightly bigger eyes and forehead.

Xi now had a plain brown hair that reached her waist. Her eyes turned green while the skin to remained unchanged. Her lips were now fuller with her features visibly older. Not to mention a quite sizable pair of breasts.

"It was not my idea, my idiot brother and Cao did that." Xi blushed slightly." Penny did not want to help me, it was too ,,sensational" for her." What she did not add was the fact that the robot girl told her to enjoy big breasts while she had them.

That stung.

Thor gave her very mocking stare while stiffing laugh. With the glare that promised painful death she lead Pyrrha out of the flat onto the...less than stellar corridor.

The flat was at the lowest floor of the building but they got inside via secret lift that connected it to the underground to Pyrrha had no chance of seeing the condition of the building. The first thing that hit her was smell.

The smell of poverty. Pyrrha's nose cringed at the less than pleasant scent of...on the other hand she did not want to digest what she was smelling.

Seeing her perplexing the Lie sibling quickly lead her outside to equally rundown yard in between the high social buildings. At least it smelled better here, but not by large margin.

"Let's go to the metro station and take a ride to the city center." Thor stated." Just so you know the city named after you is not a dump like those districts...well most of it." He rubbed his neck sheepishly.

"We'll start at the Alley of the Hunters...I think that you will like it." Xi gave her small smile.

The trio walked for about twenty minuted between the block before they reached the main road with the passage to underground metro station.

Why would anyone sane stop a train here was a mystery to Pyrrha. While she was quite confident with her close quarter skills the sheer number of suspicious looking people around her was staggering.

"Hey sweetee how bout he have some fun?" The said suspicious person walked right into her path leering at Pyrrha. He was a strong build tall bull Faunus with horns coming from his forehead dressed in what looked like a combination of various rags that somehow managed to pass as clothing.

"No thank you." Pyrrha politely replied.

"I wasn't askin!" He made a move to grab her but Pyrrha anticipated that. She grabbed his wrist twisting it at painful angle. The crook hissed at the sudden pain but Pyrrha was far from being done. She drove her shoulder in his chest and in one swift move the threw the man who probably weighed twice her weight over her shoulder.

The man gasped as the heel was driven into his throat cutting his oxygen supply.

"Do not force yourself on women ever again!" Pyrrha uttered coldly making the Lie children gasp behind her." Am I clear?"

"urhgt!"

"I'm glad we reached an understanding." She moved her feet letting the man gasp for much needed air.

"I think that you will fit right in Pyr." Thor uttered with awe. Sure he could do something like that too with his aura unlocked at all but the swift finesse of the Red-head was impressive.

"I doubt I would like to fit in, " Pyrrha replied looking at the dirty station." Does the authorities ever come here?"

"Yeah in patrol numbering from twelve up, armed to the teeth, can be seen from miles." Thor supplied. "So usually they're ineffective as hell."

"Except when they get tipped off and raid our safe houses." Xi added." Then their efficiency is rising significantly, it's our train let's hope in."

The trio entered the dull gray metro standing in the corner.

"Here." Xi handled Pyrrha small card with her current face on." That's your new ID. The birth date was adjusted to match your age in current date but the month, day, blood type ect remained the same. Your new name is Sarah Gordon and you're our cousin that came by from the nearby village of Rigburg. I'm Megan and he's Jack Gordon. You're daughter of our uncle's from dad's side." Xi told her." Got it?"

"Sarah Gordon, Rigburg, Ren's my uncle got it." Pyrrha nodded.

The not-twin duo started to explain the events that transpired in the past and present at least trying to give Pyrrha more insight on how the world operated. She was listening but her attention was glued to the sights out of the window. Slowly the dull block gave way to more sophisticated buildings. While most of architecture was composed of minimalist Atlas spires Pyrrha also spotted the orange slanted roofs of Mistralian buildings and large stone constructions native to Vacuo with housing originating from Vale in between.

"To not make anyone feel excluded Arc allowed the city to have the architecture from all kingdoms as symbol of unity." Xi caught her look." In the very center of city is the citadel from where Arc rules all over the Remnant. We will go there after the Alley of Heroes since it's near by. It was the first construction build-"

Thor yawned loudly.

"- want to give some input dear brother?" Xi asked giving him a light glare.

"You will bore her to death with all this that building is that and that is that." Thor shook his head." Let me get to cool stuff! Around the not-compensating for something citadel are the four kingdom districts. Vale the best restaurants, Atlas best gear, Vacuo best parties and drinks ever! And Mistral where you can buy literally anything. The Valley of Aunts and Uncles are in Vale district so we can go grab something to bite there!" Thor explained with visible excitement.

"We had breakfast about half hour ago." Xi pointed out.

"Hungry." Thor replied.

"You're always hungry."

"Hungry." Thor agreed with his whole being making Pyrrha chuckle. The duo was almost like a skin taken from their parents when they were younger.

"I have a question, what happened to the previews capitols of the kingdoms? I just heard rumors that they weren't a priority."

"Don't worry only Vale was left abandoned, the rest while not wholly due to the lack of people to settle it were rebuilt. Every year more people are coming back there, so I guess in another decade they will be back to former glory." Xi told her." But sadly the settlements grew far in between so some large area's are empty safe from occasional Grimm, but if we could say anything positive about Protectorate is that they do a regular swipes across the territory to keep the Grimm population in check."

"So can we travel to other kingdoms?"

"Yes there's no restrictions in travel, you just have to go to travel office to register the travel with destination and time you're going to spent in certain place, but aside from that there are no real restrictions or consequences even if you overstay your deadline a day or two."

"Would it be possible to travel to Mistral one day?" Pyrrha inquired hopefully.

"I'm sure Mom and Dad can think of something cousin Sarah." Thor smirked." Ok this is our station!"

The trio got out of the metro and set their foot on pearly white marble. Pyrrha was pretty sure that her mouth hung open when she looked around.

The Central Metro station was a true marvel of architecture. The interiors were made out of white marble with golden chandeliers hanging from the ceiling which was made in rich Valean style with it's hand crafted ornaments. But what really grabbed Pyrrha's attention were the paintings on the wall.

A broken tower with creepily familiar dragon climbing at top of it. Among a smoke and destruction she recognized her beloved Beacon.

That now served as real beacon of freedom.

Oh the irony.

"The fall of Beacon." Xi told her quietly.

"Indeed..." Pyrrha tore her sight from the painting and moved on with twins behind her casting her worried looks.

Each time some painting took her interest Xi took it upon herself to explain the context of it. That was until they reached the mail hail. The painting there or literally took her break away. The sheer detail made it look almost like a photo with only added to it's terrifying aspect.

The large five on ten meters image showed a hellish scene from a brutal battlefield with corpses of man, faunus and grimm lying everywhere among the rubble smoke and blood. She recognized all her friends from Beacon battling hordes of Grimm. Yang with her hair burning, Ruby shrouded in silver light, Blake locked in deadly duel with red monster, Weiss in a blizzard of Dust, Ren and Nora back to back keeping the horde off...

But that was not that drew her attention in fullest.

It was the very center of painting. Where a blooded, bruised man that somehow was glowing like a sun was piercing the chest of...Pyrrha could not name the creature. It resembled human but the thing was rather the perversion of the life itself. The cold glowing red eyes with mouth full of needle like teeth on the pale white flesh adorned with red veins.

"Salem..." Pyrrha whispered feeling shiver went down her spine. Just by looking at the thing her courage seemed to diminish and cold tendrils of fear gripped her heart...and that was just a painting. She could not even image being in presence of such thing more less fighting it. And from the looks of it it was a dramatic battle. The artist did a really good job at showing the extent of Jaune's injuries. Multiple cuts all over his body with the largest one being across his chest with one of his arms changing uselessly at his side. Yet all Pyrrha could see was a determination on his face as he drove Crocea Mors straight into Salem's heart if she had one.

Yet there was one thing bugging her about the scene.

"Why the painter showed him so beaten? In Mistral the heroes were always without scratch." Pyrrha asked. Why would anyone agree to show their ruler in such state?

"It was Arc wish to show it as it was. He actually explained it at the evening program when it was revealed and made no small shock and outrage to show their ,,beloved" Protector in anything other than knight in white armor." Xi made air quotes." But surprisingly he wanted people to see him as just another person."

'Not surprising at all' Pyrrha thought withholding her smile.

"It was something about courage and the power that every person have." Thor added glaring at the painting." For me it was just a publicly stunt to show how much he was in for the common folk...aside from that the painting is pretty accurate, he have your sash- ow!" Thor yelped when Xi socked him in the arm.

Pyrrha's eyes instantly went to Jaune's midsection where indeed a piece of red cloth was wrapped around his waist.

"D-Does he still wear it?" She asked with slight tremble. Somehow that little piece of cloth struck her even more than naming whole city after her. It was more...personal.

"He does...while it's not your sash since it was most likely destroyed over the years he wears red at his waist all the time." Xi told her quietly.

'He still remembers me...' Pyrrha had to fight tears at this point. She managed to rein her emotions in and forced herself to move from the spot. She still had much to see and could not spent whole day looking at Jaune's image.

"So if we go to that exit we will reach the Alley of Heroes haha!" Thor exclaimed awkwardly hoping to somehow dispel the mood.

He pushed forward hoping that the two girls would follow him.

"So what exactly is that Alley of Heroes?" Pyrrha followed the marching boy.

"The main street of Nikosia leading straight into the citadel then parting into four main roads out of the city. Along the way there are sculptures of the individuals who contributed greatly to the victory."

The moment they stepped our from the underground Pyrrha realized how many people actually lost their lives in war.

The four rows of sculptures were going all the way towards the enormously high white spire that was the citadel of Nikosia...which wasn't that close.

"There has to be hundreds of those..."Pyrrha mumbled.

"Exactly one thousand five hundred forty four, like I said only those who contributed greatly to the war." Xi moved forward." In order to celebrate those fallen heroes all the parades are happening here so they could enjoy their victory with us. Under each sculpture there's a biography of that person and how she or he died."

"I remember that we had to write an essay on at least five of them when we're at school, separate ones on great 8 aka team RWBY and JNPR." Thor put his hand behind his head." It was weird trying to write one on Mom and Dad, the history teacher totally got them wrong, I mean how could I write that more than not there was no battle plan and they just winged it?"

Pyrrha chuckled at that comment. It so like Nora do to something and then Ren coming in for damage control.

They walked towards the citadel through the crowed city center where thousands of people were going on about their daily lives.

Human and Faunus. Not humans and occasional Faunus but Humans mixed with Faunus crowds were passing here.

Yet no one seemed to mind that they were in the very center dressed smartly and doing their business.

Like equals.

'I wish Blake could see that...' Pyrrha sighed passing yet another sculpture. After about twenty minutes they finally reached the foundations of the citadel and the spartan had to admit, her earlier assumptions about it openness to people being a disadvantage were deadly wrong.

The place was a true citadel with large floodgates she earlier mistook for another line of buildings. The massive yet simple machinery could in second cut off all roads with few thousands tons of steel.

The automatic turret nests were build in the said wall as well were placed at the top of it. If that was not an overkill, Pyrrha noticed the same on the spire all the way to the top.

The firepower alone would make any attempt to besiege that suicidal. Not to mention the amount of armored soldiers walking between the civilians.

"The garrison of the citadel is set at five thousands at all time, in matter of emergency they can triple that number in two days..." Xi told her." We usually take the more ,, eager" individuals here to show why open combat would be lethal to us, they have too much advantage."

"Then how do you plan to defeat them...you do plan to defeat them?" Pyrrha inquired, in almost whisper.

"Eventually, but all upper managent is in agreement that open rebelion would just end in our destruction, so it more like thousands cuts, to slowly bleed the Protectorate until it collapses."

"Not all of them sis, some wants to fight." Thor interjected." I mean how long do we have to hide?"

"Maybe till there's more than 0,01% of chance of success if we fight according to Penny." She deadpanned.

"Show some faith sis!" Thor exclaimed.

"I prefer facts, thank you." the girl shoot back." Here we are the Great 8."

Just as Xi said the large easily three meters tall sculptures were standing proudly leading to a massive entry to the spiral itself.

The sculptures were made of white marble, yet each had a certain color theme associated with each individual. They were facing each other and after a second she realized that their match up wasn't accidental.

It was the same set up from the initiation.

Her and Jaune

Ruby and Weiss

Ren and Nora

Yang and Blake

All of them pointing their signature weapons proudly before them. Truly inspiring sight.

"Wow..."Pyrrha mumbled in awe." Amazing."

"Totally! I mean how awesome it must have been to know all of them as teenagers! Can you imagine it Xi?!"

"Hardly, I doubt that half of mom stories are true, Riding an Ursa was really stretching it..."

'It's almost disturbing how similar they are to their parents...' Pyrrha felt a smile climb on her face.

"But it also shows how dangerous Arc is..." Xi suddenly said.

"How so?"

"He's not petty, he could order those sculptures down since some of them oppose him, but he never did. He's not the one to hold petty grudges which mean one less weakness to exploit..." She sighed." I know that it seems that the Protectorate is not a bad place...and comparing to the stories our parents told us it is really not that bad, there is a part that is hidden."

"If you live by rules you can have easy peasy life." Thor interjected." But once you step out of the line even for something minor your life becomes hell, you either obey 100% or you're a criminal no in between."

Her smile fell from her face, with eyes going downcast.

The twins shared a guilty look. They knew she had a lot on her plate and they kept adding to it. Ren and Nora told them to show her everything without sugar coating but the Lie kids had no heart to do it any further.

With telepathic link they totally did not have they deiced to go easy on Pyrrha.

"Ok!" Thor exclaimed grabbing her hand." No let's go to Vacuo district! That's the coolest part of time!" He moved forward dragging her behind him.

And so the trip continued through the diverse and bustling city. The loud and chaotic district of Vacuo, the clean and orderly district of Atlas, the high class district of Vale and the oh so nostalgic district of Mistral where a memories of her childhood came back in force as the scents in incise and spices hit her nostrils. As the soft tune of mistralians bards reached her ears and the slanted rooftop of wooden constructions appeared before her eyes.

Pyrrh closed her eyes imagining that she was once again a child running along with other playing some silly games.

Before her training,

Before her fame,

Before Beacon.

She longed for those easy days when everything was simple and the worst thing that could happen was a bruised knee. Yet there was something amiss here. Like some subtle yet essential part of what made Mistral culture so great was gone. Pyrrha shrugged discarding that thought. Obviously after what happened nothing would be the same.

Her home was most likely gone too...with her parents.

The thought was something that plagued Pyrrha systematically. She always made sure to sent letter or talk to them via her scroll.

'One day I'll find what happened to them…' She promised herself

….

 _Later_

Before they knew it the whole day went by and it was getting dark. Since there was no real rush to see everything in one day Xi and Thor decided to cut the trip short and start over next day. Also their mother texted them that it was time for supper and if you knew anything about Nora it was that you did not miss the supper.

Never.

When asked the twins did not want to speak about it.

After returning and being fed an ungodly amount of really delicious food Pyrrha was given and hour of rest to digest before the older redhead would take her to the training. With nothing better to do Pyrrha turned the TV on.

Like Yang's humor some things never changed. Even in this time period the TV was flooded with tacky commercials and dumb shows with pseudo celebrities trying to act as compasses of morality.

With sigh she turned the device off and left her room. She moved to the living room where she found Nora sitting on the sofa and watching…

"BREAK HIS LEGS!" She shouted at the masked man who just happened to viciously kick his opponent in the thigh.

"Am I interrupting something?" Pyrrha asked with mirth.

"Just watching the newest edition of Protectorate's wrestling finals! I hope Ironforest Jack will win! OH YEAH!" She almost squealed when the man in question threw his opponent off the ring.

"I remember something similar...but it was never so poppular..." Pyrrha mussed.

"Hehehe that would be my fault, when we still were all buddy buddy with Jaune I had him assign some funds to organize the first tournament and it kind off grew from there..."

"THE GOLDEN HAMMER GOES TO JAAAAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKK IRONFOREST!" He host announced much to the gathered crowd joy handling a large,suspiciously familiar looking hammer to the winner of the event.

Nora pumped her fist into the air.

Pyrrha on the other hand wondered how the future would look like under Nora's rule…

A shiver went down her spine. Thinking about a calamity was never good.

"So Pyr, what do you want?" Nora asked.

"I've been wondering if we could go to train bit earlier..." Pyrhha started.

"Sure you don't wanna rest a bit more?" Nora asked.

"I'm fine, a workout would do me some good."

"Okey, so let's get dressed and meet here in five!"

Content Pyrrha went to her room to take her weapons. She met Nora and almost burst into giggles when she had seen her in the same pink and white sport clothes she wore when she attempted to train her before the Vytal tournament.

"What? I look great in that, also here." She handled her a breathing mask." We're going through the sewers and you kind of can imagine what is it like."

"Surely...how long we're going to walk there?" The prospect of walking into sewers did not sit well with Pyrrha.

"We have a lift on in the building that leads to it but the smell is still horrid but welll beggars can't be choosers...so let's go!"

They left the flat and moved to the closest lift upon entering Nora started to type seemingly on random buttons.

The lift started to go down going below minus one that was supposedly the last floor and came to a stop. The door opened showing a gray steel wall. Nora crouched and pressed the far left side of the wall. With quiet hiss it slide down revealing a secret corridor leading to yet another lift.

"Now put your mask on, you really and I mean really don't want to smell that." Nora warned her." I don't want to clean the lift."

Pyrrha obliged instantly.

Both women entered the lift and soon the used to be dead Redhead realized that Nora was terrifyingly right.

The stench was absolutely horrid, even with mask she had to use all of her will power to not puke on Nora's shoes.

"Told ya…" She sing sang." But you get used to it if you have to go there every day..."

"Why?"

"Our whole network center is there along with shelters and training rooms but luckily we have some air filters or we would really die there saving Jaueny the work." Nora replied cheerfully.

They duo fell into silence after that waiting for the ride to end. The lift came to a stop with silent boop...yes a boop don't ask why or how.

The door opened revealing two guards with similar breathing mask. They both straightened when Nora and Pyrrha passed through. In just few minutes they ended up in quite spacey but really noisy room. The sound of running water filled the space. Like everything in this city it was made of this dull grey metal. In the very center was a ring while in the corners various training equipment were placed.

"It's to mute the combats sounds!" Nora shouted." Just behind the wall is a main sinkhole where water from all city goes to the tank and then to the sewage treatment plant! So do not take the mask off!"

"I wouldn't dream of it!" Pyrrha replied.

"I think that you need a new combat clothes! We'll take care of that tomorrow!" Nora winked producing a medium sized hammer.

It was made of some sort of dark steel material with Nora's golden emblem engraved on the center of the hammer. The handle was long enough for being two handed weapon if necessary. Comparing to her previous weapon the hammer was smaller focused on delivering massive damage in limited area. With Nora's strength it was almost anti-armor weapon.

"With all those let's look like armored tin-cans trend going around Maghild started to be tiny bit too weak, needed something more effective and here comes Mjolnir!" She rose the hammer above her head." Able to smash any armor plus it produce electric energy to charge my semblance!"

"What about ranged attacks?" Pyrrha asked.

"I'm glad you asked!" Nora grinned only so slightly maniacally when she transformed her weapon...into a very viciously looking shotgun."I CALL SHOTGUN!"

Pyrrha suddenly felt that the ,,training" wasn't such a good idea after all.

"It can rip a hole in a steel wall!" Nora chirped." Ok just to make this more fun, I won't use my semblance! That should give you the chance you never gave my children..."

"Nora are you by any chance angry at me?" Pyrrha suddenly did not felt that confident in her skills.

"Noooooo I am-" Nora suddenly lunged at her with insane speed, changing her weapon back to her hammer form. Pyrrha in blink of an eye brought out her weapons and raised her shield.

In future when she was thinking about this spar she realized how monumentally stupid her move was. Firstly she tried to block someone using blunt, anti armor weapon, instead of dodging. Second the person wielding said weapon was Nora.

Upon contact Pyrrha was shoot back straight at the wall with alarming speed. But she wasn't the strongest 1st year student for nothing. She flipped in mid air, landing on the wall firmly planting her feet there. Then she jumped at Nora changing her weapon to spear.

Nora smirked easily side stepping the P-bullet allowing her to safely pass.

"Not!" She exclaimed as the other redhead landed and looked at her warily. Back in Beacon days Pyrrha would kick the living shit out of Nora. Even with all the power she possessed the Spartan girl would overcome it and ultimately come on top.

Now the roles were reversed.

Nora placed her hammer on her shoulder and made a come at me move at Pyrrha, making her frown. The girl would usually allow her opponent to be on offensive for a while to learn his or her move set, before going on offense.

Nora was acutely aware of that.

Pyrrha huffed carefully moving forward. She had to reevaluate Nora's skill and the fact that she was a huntress longer than Pyrrha was alive was slightly down putting.

She surged forwards unleashing a flurry of precise stabs intending to keep Nora at the distance. The older woman nimbly dodged every thrust making a quite annoying sound of Whuhuhu every time Pyrrha missed.

Nora swiped her hammed forcing Pyrrha to back off. She used the momentary break to transform her weapon into a SHOTGUN! She unleashed a deadly barrage of shot forcing Pyrrha purely on defense. The thing really packed a punch. Pyrrha had to keep her shield with both hands just to not lost her protection.

She could wait for Nora to run out of ammo but that would tire her too much, she had to use her semblance.

Taking control of the metal she stopped Nora's barrage right before and slowly standing.

"Forgot how cool you could be Pyr!" Nora exclaimed with excitement." You stopped all those bullets and now the slow threatening rise before you-" Pyrrha returned the bullets to its owner." THAT!"

Nora dodged it bending backwards somehow avoiding each and every one with a gracious back flip at the end.

Pyrrha frowned Nora wasn't serious at all. She was having great time if her giggle was any indication. She was not going easy on her and the fact that Nora hadn't been even a bit serious was a blow to her pride. If there was one weakness Pyrrha had it was her competitive streak.

She transformed her weapon into a rifle and started shooting rapidly but once again that proved to be useless. The woman was just too fast! Since when bullets became this ineffective?!

Pyrrha ceased her actions as they were pointless. She quickly assessed the situation and deiced to go all out.

She activated the saw inside her shield and threw it at Nora using her magnetism to redirect it at ran om moments to confuse her opponent. Yet again it proved to be completely useless.

In desperate attempt she yanked Nora's hammer from her hands and charged at the older woman with both her shield and hammer behind her.

"HIIAAA!" Pyrrha slashed with her sword with deadly precision supporting herself with the other two weapons actually making Nora stop uttering that ridiculous sound and somehow look like she wasn't totally laid back. The Spartan girl sent the hammer at Nora's head while shield was aiming at her mid section. Yet Nora with an almost impossible flip avoided both projectile by exploiting the space between them both.

Using Pyrrha's whole one -second long shock Nora instantly closed the distance between them unleashed a storm of kicks and punches upon Pyrrha.

Each of them felt like a hammer. Nora's monstrous strength seemed to be intact, hell she packed even more than last time they sparred.

The worst part was that she wasn't even using her semblance. With the additional power up Nora would eradicate Pyrrha in matters of seconds. Just as that thought passed throughout her mind Nora broke her guard and planted a devastating kick in her midsection, knocking the air out of her lungs. And almost knocking her out of her boots as she flied with alarming speed towards the wall. Sadly this time she did not made it in time and hit the steel with loud thud.

She tried to get up but Nora was already upon her. The Valkyrie fist fell down just few inches right to Pyrrha's face denting the wall.

"AAAAAAAAAAAND cut!" Nora chipped." Wooo that was so cool! Especially that Shield&Hammer combo! You almost got me there!" She extended her arm to help Pyrrha get up which the girl accepted." You're as good as I remembered!"

"And you're absolutely amazing Nora I could not lay finger on you." Pyrrha replied honestly." I never fought an opponent which beat me so bad-" She suddenly paused, suddenly growing sullen. Her hand traveling to the place where the arrow pierced.

Nora put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

"Yikes sorry for that Pyr." Nora instantly apologized.

"No, it's not your fault Nora, I should get a grip of myself." Pyrrha shoved down her anxiety.

"Don't push yourself too hard, we're not in a rush so take as much time as you need." Nora gave her easy grin." So since the warm up is over take five and we'll start the real training!"

Pyrrha felt her stomach sank. She was already quite beaten and her aura was low, surely Nora was kidding…

"There's no trainin like broken aura trainin!"

She wasn't.

…

 _Later_

Pyrrha moaned as she tired to find a position on her bed that did not torment her sore body. Yet it was a futile effort. Nora was very through with her brutal training regime not allowing Pyrrha's aura to recover even for a second.

She had hellish training yes but that one took the cake.

She did not even remember how she got back, or who washed her for that matter. She kind of realized that she was lying on the bed… Too sore and exhausted to do anything Pyrrha decided to rest, quickly falling into slumber.

Yet it was anything but peaceful.

Pyrrha struggled and twisted on her bed feeling a suffocating hotness almost fire like plagued her body. She barely could take a breath, begging for some cool air. She wanted nothing but a little bit of cold any amount would do. She could not bear this no longer, she need to leave this place!

"Pyrrha…" distorted voice reached her ears." Pyrrha..." The suffering intensified as the place got even hotter and more air, drying her throat." H-Help me..." Voice pleaded with noticeable pain in it." Please...free me!"

Pyrrha in this lucid dream of suffocating darkness clawed her throat struggling to take a breath.

"Save me!" The voice turned desperate as the dream came to a close "PYRRHA!" The screech almost shattered her. It was so agonizing, so painful!

Then in one second her mind was bombarded with flood images that made no sense to her but for some reason filled her with dread.

So Pyrrha did the only thing that came to her mind.

She screamed.


	6. Chapter 6

"Boop?"

"Nora I can't do it. I'm not that young anymore." Ren sighed, feeling his vitality leaving at an alarming rate.

"Boop?!"

"You will drag me into an early grave."

"Booop mhmhmh."

"I love you t-"

"KYAAAAAA!"

The Lie family jumped out of their beds when a high pitched scream sounded across the flat. The only small mercy was that they sound proofed the walls.

"It's Pyrrha!" Nora ran out of the room, hastily throwing her nightgown on with Ren close behind her.

Thor and Xi were also out of their room, weapons in hand.

"Mom, Dad, what's going on?" Xi asked, worry written all over her face. Nora passed by her and went straight to Pyrrha's room. She slammed the door open, excepting the worst.

She had a few ideas about what might happen from a Protectorate full frontal assault as Pyrrha discovered the subtle changes to her body at this tender age, but surely not what she was seeing now.

Pyrrha was sitting at her desk frantically drawing something on a piece of paper and muttering to herself.

Ren and Nora exchanged confused looks.

"Errr Pyr, is everything ok?" Nora asked tenderly. The Spartan ignored her and relentlessly continued her scribbling.

The Lie family quietly observed her, hesitant to do anything to upset her. They knew she was in a delicate state of the mind. After a minute or so Pyrrha finished and looked at them with wide anxious eyes.

"I need to go here." She stated showing them her drawing. Ren looked up to her, and slowly moved to take the paper from Pyrrha. She eyed him warily as if he would try to destroy her work. Very gently he took the paper and looked at it.

The rough drawing, Pyrrha had no artistic skills whatsoever, showed a mountain top of some sort.

"Why?" Ren asked eying the trembling girl.

"I don't know... I just know I need to find that place." Pyrrha replied, knowing how ridiculous her explanation sounded. "Please I know you've already done so much for me-"

"Stop right there!" Nora interjected. "Before you say something like "I know what kind of burden I am" I want to warn you that I don't take kindly to when people I consider family do stupid things. So I won't pretend that I know what is going on here, because your comeback is ridiculous as is, but after everything I have seen up till now I know that sometimes things can't be explained or understood. So..." She took the drawing out of Ren's hands. "We'll try to find this place if it exists. If it does then you're onto something. If not then we'll all forget about it, okay?"

Pyrrha nodded submissively.

"Alright then, everyone back to bed. You three have a long day tomorrow, so get some rest." She shooed the rest of her family out of the room. "Pyrrha if you need to talk, about anything, know that Renny and I are here for you." Nora said in an unusual seriousness.

"T-Thanks Nora." Pyrrha choked, still shaken from her nightmare.

"Now who wants a hug?" She spread her arms.

"I don't-Gyah!" Too late. One bone crushing hug session later, Pyrrha was lying on her bed unable to move. Despite it being impossible, it seemed that Nora's monstrous strength grew even more over the years.

Pyrrha closed her eyes, happy that it was an affectionate hug on her part. Being on the receiving end of Nora's anger wasn't something she would like to try anytime soon.

She sighed, trying to find a more comfortable position.

"Boop?!"

This was going to be a looong night for Pyrrha, and Xi, and Thor, and especially Ren…

* * *

"...and remember no attacking the police Thor!" Nora waved to her children, who were leading Pyrrha on another trip around the city. Since it was Friday the city was livelier than normally. Maybe they would have some fun.

As soon as doors closed Nora went to her computer and scanned the picture Pyrrha drew.

"Penny, sweetie are you there?" Nora asked.

"100% here and ready! Salutations friend Nora! What can this humble AI do for you?" The eternally young face of Penny appeared on the screen.

"Can you find these peaks for me? Please?" Nora folded her hands.

"Not a problem! Send it!" Nora did just that. "Wow someone needs a drawing lessons. It's so horrible... but I think I can work with it." Penny rubbed her chin. "In time..."

"Isn't your brain like a bazillion times faster than a humans? It should be done by now!?" Nora lamented.

"Not with this kind of source material. Who drew this?" Penny asked, unaware that a certain redheaded spartan just sneezed, spilling her shake all over certain not twins. "Never the less I'll do my best to solve this riddle!"

"Okay! Can you patch me through to Ruby?"

"Nope. She's in a meeting right now. The usual boring type." Penny shook her head.

"Awww I wanted to ask how Summer's fairing after meeting her idol?" Nora giggled.

"I believe that she's suffering from Pyrrha Withdrawal Syndrome. She basically can't make a sentence at this point without trying to sneak in a mission or visit or trip to Nikosia.

"Ouch, poor little thing."

"I believe the emo phase is coming in quick stride, unless she gets her dose." Penny warned. "Maybe have Pyrrha call her or something..." The android grew serious. "How... how is she taking all of this?" She asked growing serious.

"To be honest I think she's kind of going with the flow right now." Nora sighed. "I can tell that she's still trying to wrap her head around it, but...well that bubble will burst sooner or later. The real question is when do we play damage control."

"You told your children to not show her the worst parts?" Penny pressed with a worried frown.

"Trust me they know. She's not ready for those truths yet... she still has hope." Nora felt her heart ache painfully for Pyrrha. She really did not look forward to the day Pyrrha realizes what Jaune had become.

"Indeed. I'll try to get this drawing processed as soon as possible. Maybe it will bring her some comfort."

"Let's hope so."

* * *

"Well you could have at the least told me that." Xi mumbled totally not pouting.

"So you could rat me out to Mom and Dad, fat chance." Thor replied wrapping his arms around a very happy Cao and Summer. "Besides the more the merrier!"

The C and S of team Colts also had an optic disguise. As cousins they went with the almost identical twins theme, both of them having dark brown hair and green eyes. Not to mention matching outfits consisting standard gray uniforms, that were common in Protectorate. With the exception of Cao not wearing a shirt, and just a vest leaving his abnormally muscular abs exposed to the world.

Of course their choice was not to spite Xi and Thor, not even one bit. Even the act of sibling love with one another was just a facade.

"I wouldn't, you know that." Xi folded her arms. "I actually welcome the company."

"Are you saying that to convince us or yourself bookworm?" Cao chuckled. "So Pyrrha the Terminator, you ready to do some sightseeing?"

"Terminator?" Pyrrha blinked at the title.

"After that trashing you gave us I wouldn't call you anything less, but don't think that I'll give up in trying to best you!"

"Still butt hurt that you got beaten by a girl?" Thor patter his friend's arm.

"No! It's just my never ending need to improve myself!" Cao protested with a fake laugh.

"So our dumb leader drama aside, how have you been Pyrrha?" Summer asked in excitement. "Nikosia's quite a city, eh?"

"Indeed. It's bigger than any city I have ever been to before." Pyrrha told the younger girl. "Quite overwhelming to say the least."

"I know! And there's so much to do here! All the shops and restaurants!" Summer chirped excitedly.

"Come on Summer, Pyrrha's not interested in that stuff!" Cao interrupted her. "How about we go to the Vacuo district for the good stuff!"

Yup leave it for Yang and Sun's offspring to be the demoralizing factor in the group.

"I know the place."

Pyrrha wanted to protest the idea, but suddenly paused. Who if not her couldn't use a drink right now. She was the oldest one here, but maybe a little bit of alcohol would help her relax.

* * *

Lie's House

"Dadadadad... I'm making a diner!" Nora sang as she prepared the food. Before she managed to finish her scroll rang.

"Yahello!" Nora answered.

"Mom...we got a situation here." Xi's voice was unusually terrified.

"Xi what did Thor do?" Nora's voice was dangerously sweet.

"It was actually Cao's idea... to go have some drinks in the Vacuo district..." The girl could hear electric discharge in the background. "At the Vacuo Thief…."

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes sweetie... and don't try to go anywhere. You don't want me looking for you."

Knowing that this would root the girl in place, Nora hung up and called her beloved husband.

"Ren, honey, our children went to the Vacuo district."

"We knew that this day would come. Let's go and get damage control underway before the police show." He sighed, and went for the keys. They activated their disguises, turning them into an elderly couple.

The pros of having an air car was the fact that something like traffic became obsolete. The cons were... well actually having an air car was too awesome for having any drawbacks.

After a few minutes of flight they landed at their destination.

The first sign that something was very wrong was the fact that a guy who looked like a bouncer flew right past them.

The duo exchanged looks, and peered at the Vacuo Thief, which now lacked windows and had a few new holes in the walls.

They quickly moved inside coming upon a peculiar scene. The bar was utterly devastated. Tables wrecked and strewn about, a few unfortunate stragglers lying on the floor, moaning in pain, and both their children pressing themselves to the wall. Their shocked expressions, along with Summer with her wide open eyes and mouth.

The reason for this utter chaos was currently standing on top of the bar.

Cao, with his camouflage deactivated, was most likely begging the furious girl to spare his life. Pyrrha, still in her disguise, was holding the poor boy by his shirt and lifting him in the air. One could see very pronounced blush on her face. Her T-shirt was ripped in a few places, showing part of her generous cleavage.

"What else *hic* do I have to do for you to finally notice me!?" She shouted drunkenly in the boy's face. "I've tried *hic* everything!"

"I'm sorry!" Cao begged for forgiveness, despite being innocent.

"You better be! *Hic* I trained you! Supported you! Listened to your problems, and even put up with your lame attack names!" She shook him violently.

"Renny get me some popcorn." Nora whispered to her shell-shocked husband, failing to stifle a giggle.

"And what do I get in return?!" Pyrrha snarled. "Oh Weiss shot me do-*hic*-wn again! How do I ask Weiss out!? Weiss this, Weiss that! I even told you how I felt at the dance!" She again shook the boy. At this point foam was coming out of the teen's mouth. "What else do I have to do for you to get it Jaune? Get naked *hic* bend over the desk, and shake my ass?!" She exclaimed much to the shock of the gathered.

"Dear Monty." Ren choked, not processing what he was seeing and hearing.

"I knew we should've gotten her drunk when we were at Beacon. She would have sealed the deal herself." Nora could barely keep composure. The fiery side of Pyrrha was rarely (never) seen outside. The only glimpse shining through when she decimated team CRDL with much more brutality than it was needed. Who knew that a few drinks could unleash this pent up demon.

Unfortunately for them Pyrrha heard this. She turned violently to the side. Sadly for Cao, the force behind it ripped the shirt and the teen was sent flying right past the couple and ending up against the nearest wall.

"Running away from me again, Jaune!?" Pyrrha's eyes blazed with anger.

"Now now Pyr, it's calming down time." Nora dropped her disguise. Everyone here either ran, or was unconscious so it was safe.

"Nora?" Pyrrha asked through her drunken haze.

"Yup same ol' Nora. Now how about you get down from there and-"

"Why do you have so many wrinkles?" Pyrrha blurted, narrowing her eyes.

Ren gulped, hearing his wife's neck cracked as she tiled her head. That was a very sensitive topic in the Lie family.

"Pyrrha you need to calm-"

"Oh look it's another dickless guy! Hic!" The girl's fury turned to another unfortunate male. "She's so obvious with her hints it hurts! How many times did the towel accidentally show too much!? Or when she was dressing her ass was always aimed at you?!"

Ren froze, for the first time in many years, his cheeks heated in embarrassment.

"Maybe the two of us should give you two block heads a show together so you'll finally get it!?" She threw a set of forks at Ren with her semblance. Despite his shock he nimbly dodged them.

"Mom, Dad?" Xi timidly spoke up, not really believing what she was hearing.

"Ewwwwwwwwww." Thor shook, becoming really really uncomfortable.

"Okay time for damage control Renny, before our children hear too much!" Nora urged with a really high voice, a bright blush on her face.

Without further instruction Ren moved froward intent on knocking his friend out before she mentally scars his children further.

Pyrrha's instincts were top notch even in her drunken state. She threw a punch that might've sent a man flying, but Ren's twenty years of experience allowed him to redirect it into the nearest table, violently ending it's inanimate life. One precise hit to a nerve point later and he was quickly carrying her body to the car to hide it.

While that thought would sound even worse if spoke aloud, the oncoming sirens made him drop any pretense.

With Summer on Nora's lap in front, and Pyrrha being thrown on the remaining three knees in the back, Ren took off just in time to miss the police force. It was good that bar fight was never a top priority on their list.

"Boys, just to be certain... hands off the merchandise." Nora warned adjusting the mirror to see if the hormonal teenagers would try anything unsightly.

"Is Pyrrha going to be ok?" Summer timidly asked.

"Don't worry dear." Nora started to pet her blonde locks. "As soon as she sobers up she will be right as rain, which might not apply to you two as soon as I tell Ruby and Yang what you did." She could feel Summer stiffen, and hear Cao's quiet wail from behind. "Also don't think that you'll be getting a free pass, my dear children."

Xi and Thor gulped nervously.

"So just how much did she drink?" Nora asked.

"Well it was a couple of beers at first, and she even managed to relax a bit." Thor said, trying to not meet his Father's gaze at the "couple of beers" expression. "But she decided that she needed something stronger..."

"Then it happened." Cao added. "Some guy made a pass at her, and she thew him into a wall. Then his friends came to his aid, but she beat them too. Then it was the bouncers. I think that one of them got thrown out the window. "

"At some point Cao's disguise slipped, and she noticed him and most likely mistook him for Jaune Arc... and the rest you know." Xi finished.

They flew in silence for the rest of the trip. After Pyrrha was safely placed in bed, Nora ordered the kids to stay in the living room while she herself went underground to make a call.

She picked the secret frequency and called Ruby, Yang, and Sun at the same time.

Ruby and Sun picked almost simultaneously, while Yang was still missing.

"You guys won't believe what happened today..." Nora began telling them of the event. At the end of it Ruby was positively horrified, while Sun had hard time keeping it together.

"Yang is going to have a field day with this! She really said that?!" He cackled, finally succumbing to laughter. "I mean we all know that team JNPR was basically team Denial, but damn!"

"Sun! Not the time! Poor Summer, her hero is situation like that." Ruby lamented. "I'm gonna spank Cao so hard that he won't be able to sit till my next anniversary!"

"Well we managed to avoid the authorities, and get Pyrrha safely out there. She's currently resting." Nora sighed. "I made the kids swear that they wouldn't tell her a thing. She's probably just reacting to all the stress up till now. No need to embarrass her with this too."

"But you have to admit that her idea might have changed a few things..." Sun remarked earning scornful glares from the women. "Ok, never mind!"

"So to sum up, never ever, and I mean like ever, give Pyrrha any booze. I can only guess what would have happened at Beacon if it happened there." Nora summed up. The other two nodded and were about to disconnect when Penny's face suddenly popped up.

"Salutations! I wanted to call Pyrrha, but I guess I have an answer now why she's not picking up." Penny giggled. "Anyways, I managed to find a few dozen locations that match the drawing. Then I set the bar to 90% match, and I managed to determine seventeen locations across the world that might be the place she was looking for."

"That's a lot..." Nora mumbled.

"If I had any additional data I might be able to narrow it down." Penny suggested. "When Pyrrha's awake please ask her to contact me. I'll try to get something more from her."

"You seem really keen on finding out where this is, even if it's just a dream." Sun told her.

"We have all seen things that defy logic, even I, as an Android, could not use any logical calculation to solve some problems. It might be nothing but a byproduct of an overloaded mind... or something very relevant."

Suddenly the idle atmosphere vanished, and the gathered grew serious.

"Pyrrha was in the middle of it long before we understood what was going on." Ruby stated, closing her eyes. "She is here now, and we can only guess who's responsible."

"You don't think that she came back?" Sun asked slowly, furrowing his brows.

"We cannot disregard that possibility." Penny replied. "Till this day we do not understand the extent of her powers. Cheating death may very well be one of them."

"But I saw Jaune eradicator her. There wasn't anything left!" Ruby said hotly, dreading the mere thought that the Witch of Grimm, Salem, might be alive.

"As I said it's only a possibility, a frightening one, but a possibility none the less." Penny tried to calm her friend down.

"Well that went from let's not make fun of Pyrrha, to oh shit she's back quickly." Nora deadpanned. "Okay I'm gonna head off to tend to our troublesome champion, and maybe give some counseling to Summer in your stead Ruby."

* * *

Moving is natural for most, if not all, living beings. It was essential to survive. Without motion there would not be life.

One could say motion was life.

Right now, in Pyrrha's case, motion was pain and nauseousness. Why'd her head hurt so much? And how'd she get to her bed? Those questions might be important, but right now thirst was killing her.

With a moan she stood up, feeling her center of balance was most likely still in the city.

Like a zombie, no pun intended, she crawled out of her room to the kitchen, trying to find any liquid.

Luckily for her there was a bottle of orange juice in the fridge. She drank it greedily, feeling her parched throat get the much needed refreshment.

After the bottle was empty Pyrrha looked at the clock, it was around midnight.

'Where did the last seven hours go?' She thought in surprise, trying to recall what happened. But there was nothing. The last thing she recalled was ordering something called Vacuan Viper as a drink..."

Her eyes widened realizing that she blacked out. 'I hope I didn't cause any problems.'

By pure accident every occupant of the flat sneezed in their sleep.

Pyrrha went back to the room, trying to go back to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes the world started to spin.

'Did Jaune feel like this because of his motion sickness?' Pyrrha mused, adjusting her pillow so that she could sit up. Having nothing better to do she picked up her scroll, and saw about twenty missed calls from Penny.

Her first thought was to wait till morning, so she wouldn't wake her up. But she remembered that Penny wasn't human. She pressed call and almost instantly Penny picked up.

"Well hello sleeping beauty!" Penny smirked. "So do you feel as bad as you look?"

"Yes, Penny, I do..." Pyrrha mumbled. "You called?"

"Indeed I did! With the horrible source material you provided I managed to pinpoint seventeen locations that might match your drawing!" She missed the offended pout Pyrrha made.

"Thanks a lot..." She mumbled, losing all hope. There was no chance she would be able to check them all.

"Do you remember anything else? Some detail that might help us narrow down the search?" Penny asked. "Anything might help."

"I..." Pyrrha paused recalling the horrible feeling she felt. "I remember heat. Scorching heat that burned me..."

Penny adopted a look of pity. It seemed that fire was a curse for Pyrrha.

"Give me a second..." She paused, adjusting the data. "So it was hot, like way hotter than Mistral or Vale?" The girl nodded. "Then we've got a winner!"

"Really?" Pyrrha asked in hope.

"Yes. Most of those peaks lie in Atlas or Vale, and the only one that matched your drawing and temperature is in Vacuo. A mountain range called The Spines due to it's shape. They are located west from the former capital of Vacuo. It's a desolate place where even the Grimm have a hard time surviving. The sun literally kills anything... So I guess that covers the scorching heat part." Penny paused looking into Pyrrha's eyes. "What do you expect to find there?"

"I'm not sure..." Pyrrha replied honestly. "But I need to go there... I have to."

"You know it will require a lot of effort on your friends part?" Penny pointed out. "And they will do it for you."

Pyrrha grabbed her bed sheets.

"I know... I know. It's selfish to ask so much of them when I haven't done anything for-"

"I will stop you right there." Penny interrupted her. "Before you go into self-pity and force me to enumerate what exactly you did for them, to make you feel better. Know that I just want to know if it's not some fancy flight of an overloaded brain. So I ask again, are you certain that you have to go there?"

Pyrrha bit her lip. She recalled the pain, the suffering, the despair she felt. Whatever it was she needed to put a stop to it.

No matter what.

"Yes I am." She said with resolve. "And if I'm wrong I'll make it up to them. No matter how long it takes."

"Very well." Penny sighed. "I'll make the arrangements, and I'll give you the details in the morning. Try to catch some more sleep." The android disconnected leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She dared to hope that maybe, maybe she could get some answers there.

* * *

Beacon Base

"I'm still not sure if this's a good idea. The conditions there are harsh, even for experienced hunters." Ruby argued.

"That is why I'll accompany them." Penny said. "Your kids are old enough to fight, and between Pyrrha and I, I doubt that anything could harm them in such a remote area. At worse we will just be wasting our time. With our resources stretched as they are we cannot sent a team of hunters. I on the other hand can do things remotely, plus there are few individuals that can match my combat abilities. I doubt that any of them are stationed there. We both know there are more valuable locations that need their protection."

"That's all true, but what if Pyrrha's is onto something?" Ruby would not let it go. "You would need backup!"

"The Vacuo branch is not that far away. If the things go south we will retreat, I promise." Penny reassured her.

Ruby sighed. While it was an utter waste of time and resources to her, the possibility that this expedition might give Pyrrha a little bit of a peace was the deciding factor. Without her sacrifice, Cinder would have achieved utter and total victory over them.

She deserved this much.

"Fine... just watch over them, okay?" Rub told her synthetic friend.

"But of course! Your future generations of hunters will be safe with me!" Penny saluted her. "I'll prepare the ship, rations, and download the most recent scary campfire stories. It will be glorious!"

* * *

 _Middle of scorching hot nowhere_

"Guys I don't think I can go much further." Thor uttered, wiping his forehead of sweat. Despite having full desert gear, which consisted of high boots, coat, goggles, and head wear that protected him from the sun, nothing protected him from heat.

"Stop complaining, we're all suffering." Xi wheezed, equally affected by the sun.

After the very awkward morning where they all once again took a vow to never mention the incident from before, a message came that the next day there were going on a mission. After two days of uneventful flight, Penny, Pyrrha, and team CLTS set foot on the dried land of the Vacuan desert.

The whole area was burned to the crisp by the merciless sun, leaving only barren rocks.

They decided to land a few kilometers from the peak just in case of any trouble, and covered the remaining distance on foot.

True to it's name the mountain range looked like the spine of some gigantic beast, undoubtedly killed by the heat.

"Don't worry, we'll be at our destination in only a couple of minutes!" Penny announced, not fazed by horrible weather conditions in the slightest. What's more she was carrying a ridiculously large backpack, at lest three times bigger than her.

The team let a out a quiet cheer of joy, following the lead of the silent red-head, who was marching in front of them.

Dressed similarity to everyone else, Pyrrha pushed forward, driven by the need to solve the mystery of her dream.

'This has to be the place...' She thought, feeling her stomach tie itself in knots. While not as vivid as the first dream, Pyrrha had more dreams about this place. Again the heat and feeling of hopelessness washed over her as she suffered in eternal darkness.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she made it to the top of the last little hill before the very base of the mountain.

She looked up at the twin peaks.

'It's here...' Despite the temperature a shiver went down her spine. "It's here." She said aloud.

"So what now?" Cao asked looking around. "There's nothing here."

Pyrrha was silent. Her dream wasn't specific on what exactly she would find here. Someone needed her help, but there was no one here.

"How about I run a scan of the immediate area?" Penny suggested. Her eyes started to glow an eerie green color, as every milometer of ground was scanned. After a minute or so she blinked the glow away. "Nothing. Just rocks."

Pyrrha deflated, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

"Hey don't worry, at the least we had a cool trip!" Summer patter her arm, trying to cheer her up.

"But... are you sure Penny?" She asked with a hint of desperation.

"I'm certain. I ran the scan of whole slope three times. I'm sorry Pyrrha." The android replied. "We should head back, we don't want a sandstorm to catch us."

The group nodded, and started back down the hill with Pyrrha trailing behind. The girl felt horribly guilty for wasting everyone's time and resources.

"Help..."

Pyrrha froze.

She turned back and looked at the mountains in shock. It was not her imagination, nor the wind. She heard it. The same voice that begged her for help in her dream.

'But where are you!? There nothing here!' Pyrrha wanted to scream, but that would only make her look like more of a lunatic in the eyes of her friends and their children.

There was nothing there but a barren, dry surface full of rocks.

'Surface...' That word rang in her head. 'What if...'

She activated her semblance, and looked for any metal underneath the ground around the mountain. A bit of ore here and there, but nothing unusual. She scanned deeper and felt... steel, a lot of steel.

"Yes." She felt a smile come to her face. Steel was an alloy that did not appear naturally. "I found something!" She shouted, drawing the attention of the group.

She focused deeper and started to see a shape. A regular manufactured shape of a large underground complex. She frowned in utter concentration, stretching her senses to the max, looking for some entry to the facility.

'Bigno!' Her smile widened as she found a narrow path leading to the surface.

"Pyrrha I know that you've been thought a lot-" Penny began.

"There's a facility underground." Pyrrha interrupted her. "I can see it."

"How? Penny says that her scanners can even scan under ground?" Xi spoke.

"My semblance allows me to see any kind of metal. Obviously this place is secret, so wouldn't they have some sort of protection against scanning?" Pyrrha deduced.

Penny face palmed.

"How could I be so stupid!?" She lamented. "Fooled by such an easy trick! Of course they would have anti-spy software!"

"So what do we do now?" Thor asked all excited.

"I have found an entry point at the side of the mountain there." Pyrrha pointed to the left. "We can get inside there."

"Wait, we don't know what's inside." Penny cooled their excitement. "We might be walking into a trap."

"I can go alone Penny." Pyrrha offered.

"The last time you went alone you died." Penny replied with blunt honesty, causing a round of gasps. "Right after you bisected me."

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha quickly reverted to her old habits. "But I have to get in there! I need to."

"Pyrrha I disagree, you're not rational right now." Penny was imperturbable. "You're risking everyone's safety, and you don't know what for."

Pyrrha bit her lip, knowing that the android's arguments was valid. But…

"I'm going." Her tone left no room for argument.

"Then I'll have to stop you." Penny dropped her backpack. "For what it's worth I'm sorry."

Before things escalated, Team CLTS walked between the two women.

"You both need to calm down." Xi said feeling the friction between the two.

"I am perfectly calm. It's Pyrrha who needs to cool down and rein in her emotions." Penny said.

"I need to go there Penny. None of you have to follow me there." Pyrrha repeated.

"Do you think Ren and Nora would forgive me if I let something happen to you?" Penny asked rhetorically.

"Look how about we make a deal." Cao butted in. "We go there, but if we get in over our heads we just turn tail and run. I mean you're one of the strongest hunters in remnant, and I have seen you take a whole battleship on your own Penny." He turned to Pyrrha. "Is that ok?"

Pyrrha closed her eyes, trying to calm down and asses the situation. They were here with bunch of greenhorn huntsman hopefuls, and a super powered Android without any backup. If anything went wrong they were on their own in the middle of a hostile environment.

Her stubbornness could lead to her death... again, or worse to demise of any of her teammates.

"Very well."

The kids let out the breath they were holding, waves of relief washing over them.

"Fine, but I still think that we're getting in over our heads." Penny sighed. "Where's the entry?"

Pyrrha pointed her finger to the exact location.

"Since they're jamming my scanners you will have to help me." She stood next to Pyrrha. "I would like you to localize any artificially created metal object. A facility placed in an area like this has to have surveillance. Our ship had a jammer too, but it will all be for naught if they see us on camera."

Pyrrha nodded, and again activated her semblance, looking for any signs of man made objects.

She found them... a lot actually. By sheer of dumb luck they hadn't stepped into any of the surveillance fields yet.

"In front of us, hundreds of them..."

"Goody!" Penny opened her mouth and... dozens of flies started to pour out.

Pyrrha recoiled from the android with shock.

"Close your mouth or flies might get in." Penny chuckled. "Don't worry these aren't real flies, but my spy bots. They will help me get into the complex system."

"O-Okay." Pyrrha choked, still grossed out as hell. The swarm flew forward, and began it's magic. It covered the detecting devices allowing Penny's access.

"Now let the hacking begin!"

A minute passed.

Then five...

Then ten…

"Whoa, what kind of defenses do they have here?" Summer mused in awe. "Aunt Penny could crack any fire wall in under a minute!"

"A remote facility with security like this... whatever your dream was it surely meant something." Xi told Pyrrha.

"Maybe it's a super secret lab where a mad scientist makes super overpowered Grimm!" Cao suggested in excitement.

"Who would be insane enough to power up Grimm?" Xi asked, rolling her eyes at her leader's stupidity. Both unaware of the expression Pyrrha was making.

She surely hoped that this wouldn't become a back to the Island of Doctor Merlot.

"Oh my..." Penny finally spoke. "That was intense. I managed to break in, so now we won't be detected."

"So what kind of place is it?" Thor asked.

"I'm not sure. Aside from their anti-spy soft and hardware, the system had no information on the nature of this facility. Which is highly unusual." Penny rubbed her chin. "But I digress. Let's make our way to the entrance. There is no guarantee that someone won't notice our presence if we linger to long."

"Allow me to go first." Xi said turning invisible. "I'll check for any guards."

"Do so, we will follow you." Penny nodded.

Xi dashed forward, and with Penny's guidance she reached the concealed doors without a hitch. Soon the rest of them joined her, looking at a supposedly normal rock wall.

"Hmm... I don't see any port in which I can access. This door most likely can only be opened only from the inside."

"Then allow me!" Thor pulled out his hammer. Before anyone could react he slammed it into the rock, crushing it to bits. A part of the wall crumbled, revealing massive steel gray doors, with two golden Arcs on it.

"There goes our element of surprise." Xi sighed. Pyrrha gave her younger peer a very pointed look which made him squirm a little.

"My assumption was correct. Aside from breaking in there is no way to open the doors from the outside." Penny pressed her palm to the doors.

"Let me try." Pyrrha, using her powers, looked into the door's mechanisms, seeing that... it was a simple lever, no advanced tech to speak of. No amount of hacking would allow it to open, and the three meter-thickness would prove to be an obstacle to an unprepared assailant.

Pyrrha gritted her teeth as she forced the metal to move. First the massive lever lifted, then the gears released forcing the massive doors to slowly open. As soon as a crack appeared, no wider than few centimeters, they heard a synthetic voice.

"Intruder detected. Lethal force authorized." A hail of bullets from the inside caused the group to seek cover.

"Distract them while I'll open the door!" Pyrrha shouted, focusing on her task. Team CLTS unleashed a barrage on their own, not even aiming while Penny took the role of Pyrrha's shield, protecting her from any stray shots. From behind Penny's cover she noticed that the android was lazily blocking the bullets, using some sort of black sword that seemed to change shape.

The doors let out a screech as they fully opened. With a content smile Pyrrha broke the mechanism, preventing the doors from being closed, and pulled out her Damocles and Aspis.

"Well time to rumble!" Penny grinned raising her hands. Suddenly her bag seemed to explode with more of the black material that her sword was made of.

She created a large screen, blocking any incoming shots.

"Let's head in, shall we?" She moved forward with the team taking cover behind Penny's wall.

They entered a large room with multiple levels all over filled with…

'Yup Merlot island.' Pyrrha though dryly, seeing the red and white automatons. Obviously updated versions, but still the tech was surely his.

White bots filled the upper railings, some operating large turrets while others shot from their own automated machine guns.

On the floor level there was a literal army of red bots, with not only the electro spears she remembered from her mission, but also various other weaponry such as swords, axes, and hammers.

"Xi, Summer, go to upper levels and take out the shooters and turrets. The rest wipe out these sorry excuses for AI!" Penny ordered.

The team jumped from behind the barrier right into the heat of combat. Xi and Summer moved to target the turrets first as they could do largest damage.

Of course the incursion did not go unnoticed as the white robots started targeting them instead. Summer jumped in swinging her scythe, taking off three robot heads at the same time. She grinned as she was rewarded with a shower of sparks.

She landed on the headless body of one of them and quickly transformed her weapon into a gun mode, taking out two more robots with precision shots.

Xi, utilizing full power of her semblance, jumped from turret to turret destroying them one by one with a well placed exploding kunai. She might not have looked like it, but she carried with her quite the fire power. With her abilities she could sneak in behind enemy lines and do a bit of damage to the infrastructure.

She allowed herself a smile when a turret exploded, knocking off three robots.

"HEY WATCH IT!" Came from down stairs as the falling machines almost crushed her brother.

Xi spared a glance down, seeing the carnage that was going below.

Between Pyrrha, Penny, Cao and Thor the robots, no matter how advanced, stood no iota of a chance. Metal was crushed and weapons were broken.

After a few minutes of fierce combat the battle was over, the floor littered in red and white corpses of automatons.

"Well that wasn't so bad." Penny spoke, kicking nearest robot into a pile of them.

"I'm all fired up!" Thor exclaimed. "Let's go deeper!"

"Don't get overexcited Thor. I met the older models of these machines before." Pyrrha warned. "Those ones are even more lethal, so you need to focus."

"Ah-ok." He said a little dejectedly.

"Dude, she wasn't berating you. Just tellin ya to have your head in the game." Cao patted his his arm. "They managed to sneak in a few hits on me too, and there's no telling how many there are. So we need to watch our aura."

"Exactly." Pyrrha gave Thor a winning smile, lifting his spirits. "Now we have five more floors to go through before we enter the lowest area. There are a lot of fake corridors leading nowhere, or to some sort of trap, so we have to stay together at all costs."

The group proceeded onward, carefully going through the corridors, which were filled with more robots and traps of various kinds.

Yet all of them fell either to Pyrrha's magnetic powers, or to Penny's nanobots. As she explained, her weapon now consisted of millions of tiny robots that could adjust to any shape she imagined.

A powerful weapon indeed.

They swiftly moved through the next level, made of the same dull gray steel they had seen everywhere. Like Pyrrha said the place was a maze, and without a guide getting lost here was easy.

Yet they pressed forward, driven mostly by the champion's urge to push forward.

She could feel the answers she wanted lying in the chamber below.

"We're almost there!" Pyrrha announced, half-jogging towards the end of the corridor and exterminating everything that was unfortunate enough to get in her way.

The team ran into large open area... only to have the doors shut behind them. Yet what awaited them was not another wave of red and white robots.

No what awaited them made Team CLTS stumble back in utter fear, and Penny's systems go into overdrive calculating their odds of survival.

"Not good." She mumbled.

The only one who wasn't moved by the kneeling figure before them was Pyrrha. She carefully eyed the... thing before them.

Made of pitch black metal, the machine resembled a gigantic black knight. He was armed with a gigantic black mace and large shield with a golden bird on it.

For some reason it seemed familiar to Pyrrha, but she could not place her finger on it.

Yet behind him was what she was looking for. Gigantic metal doors leading to the very last room in the facility.

"B-Behemoth..." Summer squeaked in a small fearful voice.

"Holy Fuck, we're in it now..." Even the ever present optimism was gone from Thor's voice, as he wipe his forehead of sweat. Cao nervously gulped while Xi was as pale as death.

"Who again?" Pyrrha asked not taking her eyes off the machine.

"Behemoth, Black Knight of Protectorate, Arc's enforcer." Penny said slowly while taking a defensive stance. "He was once a man... but now he's more machine than I am."

As if the colossus heard her, he lifted his head revealing bloody red eyes. He stood up to his full six meter height, and let out a inhuman roar.

"Get ready!" Penny shouted, willing her nanobots to life as Behemoth surged froward. Pyrrha, not seeing what all the fuss was about, used her semblance to stop him... and failed spectacularly as she was pushed back by raw kinetic force.

Only thanks to years of merciless training was she able to overcome her shock and dodge the mace that smashed into the floor.

She counter attacked instantly, but her Damocles just slide down the thick armor. Behemoth swung again narrowly missing the nimble girl.

"Pyrrha get back!" Thor shouted as he unleashed a volley of grenades, that aside from distracting the armored figure, had no effect.

Cao and Xi joined in, but Behemoth simply used his shield to block all their shots. Summer tried to get close, hacking and slashing, but the armored knight simply ignored her.

"Penny what are his weaknesses?" Pyrrha asked.

"He's slower than us." She replied. "Buy me some time, I need to charge my attack."

"Understood." She used her power once more, yet this time she simply redirected the trajectory of Behemoth's mace, so it narrowly missed Cao's head. 'I cannot hold him, but at least I can influence his movements.'

She transformed her sword into a rifle and started shooting at the knight, looking for any weak points in his armor. Neck, joints, anything would suffice. But it seemed that its designer knew how to protect the most vulnerable places, as her bullets harmlessly bounced off them.

Pyrrha grit her teeth.

Surely there was a way to defeat this enemy! No one was unbeatable!

She threw Aspis at him to draw his attention to her. The Behemoth ignored her and continued to press the team. The kids were putting up a valiant effort, but the difference was too great for them to handle. The long fight to reach to this point did not help either.

She called upon her semblance, and with a mighty pull dragged the Knight towards her. He struggled, forcing her to use even more aura.

Finally the colossus relented and charged towards her with a furious roar. What she wasn't expecting was for him to point his mace at her.

"DODGE!" Cao shouted seeing this.

A beam of red light erupted from the mace, as Pyrrha instinctively hid behind her shield. The whole room was bathed in red, as the champion did her best to survive. Milometer by milometer she was being push back, and her shield started to grow dangerously hot.

"I'M COMBAT READY!" Penny's cry reached her ears, as a beam of green energy hit the side of the colossus, forcing it to break its assault on Pyrrha.

Behemoth moved his shield to cover himself, much like the Redhaired girl a second before. Pyrrha looked up to the source of the beam seeing that Penny produced a cannon-like weapon from her nanobots.

"Keep pressing him! I can't hold forever!" Penny shouted, waking he rest from their stupor. They opened fire, forcing the knight to to press his limbs tightly together, and cover the other side of his body with a mace.

CRACK!

The black shield started to break under pressure, no small thanks to Pyrrha who was mercilessly was ripping it apart from the inside. The metal that it was made from was unbelieving resistant, but nothing was truly indestructible. She exploited every imperfection and crack.

Yet the title of Black Knight of Protectorate wasn't just for show. In a surprise move Behemoth leapt into the air, abandoning his shield. He was suddenly covered in a bloody red aura.

"TAKE COVER!" Penny shouted in vain.

With mighty roar he fell to the ground, slamming his mace on the floor creating a massive explosion.

The very earth shook as the sheer raw power ripped the floor apart, sending debris and everyone else flying in all directions.

With dust filling the area, the visibility was severely limited. The team being separated benefited only one party here…

Behemoth slowly walked towards the nearest target, his sensors telling him where the victim was. If he was still a mere human he would have been as blind as the children.

But he had long since passed the limitations of a human.

"Where are you guys!?" Thor shouted, trying to look through the cloud of dust.

Perfect.

He swung his mighty mace hitting the unsuspecting boy. Thor flew though the room hitting the gigantic door he was guarding.

Despite knowing that the doors were nearly impervious, he looked in the direction anyway.

The thing that was behind it could lead the world to ruin.

He would not let it happen.

Predictably the boy had not left even a scratch, yet him not ending up as a red paste meant that he still had some aura left, but not enough to fight.

He suddenly lifted his mace to block an attack coming from the android. Its nano-bot weapon was a true marvel of technology, but against him, who had no weakness, it was useless. His armor was made from the hardest metal the late Atlas could produce.

"You won't win!" Penny shouted, producing a massive amount of spikes, which fell on him from every direction. Not producing any result of course.

"You became too human..." Behemoth spoke for the first time. His voice low and harsh, distorted by speakers.

"I take it as a compliment!" Penny avoided his mighty swing.

"You're a creation of logic, you should have joined the Protector."

"I am a person, not a creation, unlike yourself!" She shot back, calling her nano-bots back. She lost quite a lot of them in the battle already, and they were pretty much useless against him. Deciding to go old school, she pulled out her blades. She did not change them in any way since they were a memento from her late father.

She charged forward, her trusty blades behind her. Behemoth did the same, raising his mace high and lunging with a roar. Using her smaller frame to her advantage Penny ducked under the swipe, and sent her blades at him. They slid down his armor, making a rain of sparks upon contact. Behemoth tired to hit her, but the nimble android was just too fast. After a few more futile tries Behemoth paused.

"What, getting tired?" Penny taunted. "I'm too much for you?"

He pointed his mace at Thor's prone form.

Penny's eyes widened in shock as she desperately moved forward to intercept the blast. She placed her blades before her, and covered her torso with her arms and legs to minimize the damage.

"PENNY!" Summer screamed witnessing the blast hitting the Android. The dust fell just enough for her to witness the explosion. Penny's silhouette fell out of the cloud of smoke.

Her whole body was charred, letting out trails of smoke in various places. Behemoth went for the kill, intending to finish her off.

Pyrrha, Xi, and Cao ran to her side, but Summer was the closest. She jumped in the monstrosity's way, right in time to shield Penny from the oncoming mace.

The rest opened their mouths in silent screams. Summer squinted her eyes, awaiting the pain, but she would not budge. Not when her friend's life was on the line.

But the pain did not come. She dared to open her eyes seeing the mace centimeters from her head. She looked up into cold red eyes of the black knight before her. He reached to her with his free hand and grabber her hood lifting her to his eye level.

The blonde girl gulped avoiding the bloody red gaze. She still had some juice left, but no matter what she did her attacks would be utterly useless.

"Your father misses you." Behemoth said simply, before throwing the girl to the side. He lifted his mace to finish Penny off, but was interrupted when a blur of red and gold hit him. Actually forcing him few steps back.

"Cao, Xi! Get Penny and Thor away from him!" Pyrrha ordered, focusing on the giant before her.

"Away to where!? We're locked in." Cao shouted back, getting a hold of Penny's body.

"I-I-I can s-s-solve that!" Penny suddenly spoke, scaring the shit out of the poor half-faunus. Half of her face was burned off, revealing metal beneath it with a green glowing eye in the middle. "M-M-Move me t-t-towards the d-d-doors! I'll hack i-i-it!"

Cao nodded, dragging her towards the way they came from, while Xi and Summer carried Thor.

Pyrrha took a shaky breath to calm herself. She was down to half of her aura, and her companions were basically spent. She was the only thing standing between them and death.

'And it's all my fault.' A treacherous thought entered her mind. She grit her teeth, banishing it away. She could not afford such distractions now. She had to buy them enough time to open the doors and to escape.

Even if she had to sacrifice her life for it.

As if on cue they charged at each other. Pyrrha with the help of her semblance and shield blocked the mace, and started slashing at the joints where the armor was the supposedly weakest. She danced around him, slowing his moves and making lighting fast counter attacks. Yet while more and more scratches were appearing on his armor she was burning through her aura like crazy.

She ducked under a clawed hand swipe, bringing in a few more Dust powered slashes, but aside from minimal damage it hadn't done anything of notice.

A bead of sweat ran down her face. She was going to lose to this monster. Noticing her lapse in concentration Behemoth thrust his mace, hitting Pyrrha's chest and knocking the air out of her. She was sent flying backwards, almost losing her weapons in the process. She managed to land on her feet somehow, but she could barely stand. Her chest was burning with pain so intense that her sight blurred.

If not for her aura and new suit, surely her ribs would be shattered.

But it was little to no consolation as her opponent was approaching, a confident stride in his step.

"Pyrrha!" Cao and Xi jumped from behind her, pelting Behemoth under a storm of shots.

With one almost uncaring swipe they were sent flying, not even slowing him down.

As if her nightmare became real the black knight blurred and changed. Burning golden eyes were now staring at her with a cruel smile, as the arrow was placed at the bow. Fear gripped her heart as Pyrrha stumbled back.

'No no, not again!' Panic rose within her as she returned to reality, seeing Behemoth slowly lift his massive mace above his read. Her body was paralyzed by fear. She was unable to move a muscle, even though her hands shook. 'Move! Please Move!' She begged herself.

Time was reduced to crawl as the monster's eyes glowed. The mace started to slowly fall on her head, so very slowly... until it stopped.

Pyrrha did not know if she stared at the mace for hour or minute. She dared to rip her eyes off the weapon and looked around.

Everything was frozen. Cao and Xi in half motion to get up. Penny and Summer with their heads turned in her direction.

"Why are you here?" Suddenly everything around her was covered in a gray mist. Pyrrha looked around for the source of the voice, but she could not pinpoint it.

"W-Who are you?" The champion hated how weak her voice sounded.

"Why are you here?!" This time the voice was far more forceful.

"I don't know! I had a dream about this place!" Pyrrha exclaimed. "Someone needed my help!"

"What do you want?" The voice calmed down.

"Answers! Why am I alive? What is going on here!? Why me!?" Pyrrha's shouts got a hint of desperation to them.

"Is that what you truly want?"

Pyrrha was about to say yes, but something stopped her. She wanted all of that sure, but right now she wanted to save Penny and Team CLTS more than anything.

She would not be able to live with herself if something happened to them.

"I want my friends to be safe." She spoke quietly to the mist. For a few seconds the voice was silent, making Pyrrha worry that her answer was wrong.

"Are you willing to accept the burden of the responsibility?" It sounded again, this time more softly.

"I'll do whatever it takes to save them..." Pyrrha's throat was dry, and her eyes watered. Suddenly she felt something soft on her cheek. A glowing white hand rose her head gently. A wave of warmth went through her body as all the exhaustion and pain disappeared.

"It's good to meet you again Pyrrha."

* * *

Behemoth had mixed feelings about crushing skull of the Pyrrha Nikos look alike. He wasn't sure how this person looked so much like the Red Headed Champion, or how she had her powers, but that would come with an autopsy. The mission assigned by the Protector was far too important. So he swung his mace with terrifying speed at the girl's head. Only for it to stop against his will.

'What?' He thought pressing as hard as he could, but the weapon did not budge He looked down on the kneeling girl... that slowly rose her head to look at him.

"Impossible!" Behemoth growled, seeing the glow in her eyes.

"HA!" Pyrrha shouted, pushing him back with an unseen humongous force. Her power was overflowing! She felt light almost as if she was weightless. Feeling it was time to end this fight Pyrrha grabbed Behemoth, and lifted him into the air. She viciously slammed him against the ground, creating crater.

Behemoth almost instantly rose from it, aiming his mace at Pyrrha. A beam of red energy shot at her, but she just hid behind her shield. Then using her semblance she found his mace and crushed all the mechanisms inside, causing it to explode.

The black knight looked on with disbelief at his now make shift spear. Pyrrha slowly rose from her defensive position, and just like him few minutes back started to slowly walk towards him.

Be it a result of being hit too hard, or despair, but Behemoth threw the handle of his mace at Pyrrha, who stopped it with ease.

She stopped a few steps before him and encased him with her semblance, lifting him up in the air. He struggled but she held him firmly. The just like with his weapons she looked for weak spots, finding them after few seconds. The holds keeping the breast plate, the only removable part of the armor. She focused on them and broke them with ease. Then she ripped the chest-plate off.

Behemoth screamed, but this time it was a far more human scream.

Pyrrha gasped in terror when he saw what was inside the armor. The body of a man mangled beyond belief. She could only see his upper torso and face, since the rest of his body was covered by the machine. But what she was seeing scared her.

The man's face was covered with a web of scars going down to his shoulders and throat, then finally disappearing under the metal. Yet what drew Pyrrha's attention were his eyes.

His indigo's eyes, burning with anger and hate.

Indigo eyes belonging to Cardin Winchester.

Now it clicked in her mind, that golden emblem on his shield. It was Cardin's crest.

The shock was so powerful that her control slipped, which resulted in Cardin falling down.

"Cardin?" Pyrrha choked out. "Is that you?"

Behemoth, or Cardin, stood up to his full height.

"I don't know how you did this, but do not address me with such informality, rebel scum." Cardin growled. "You might look like Pyrrha Nikos, and have her power, but do not pretend that you are her!"

"I don't have time to convince you Cardin. Step aside, I need to get past those doors." She spoke.

"You will have to kill me first. I won't allow that creature to ever escape!" He growled. "Not when so many lives were lost to lock it there!"

"If only you were so noble back in Beacon Cardin, you and Jaune would've been great friends." She spoke with actual sadness.

"Don't you dare speak of nobility! You're running with a band of murderers and criminals! You act like your defending the weak, but in reality you cause even more misery whenever you operate. You destroy but you don't build. You rant about how the Protectorate should be overthrown, but you offer no alternatives than vague freedom!" He spat.

"What are you talking about?" Pyrrha lowered her weapon, genuinely confused.

Cardin stared for few seconds.

"How did I blackmail Jaune in Beacon?" He suddenly asked.

"Errr you heard it when he confessed it to me on the rooftop." Pyrrha replied instantly.

"Why did I stop?"

"Because Jaune saved you from an Ursa." She could see that he was waiting for something. "Which I helped him by lifting his shield with my semblance."

Again a few seconds of silence passed between the two.

"I don't know how you know that, but listen to me. Whatever those rebels told you is a lie. The Protectors aren't the ones causing the destruction and chaos. Don't trust those people, they are not what they seem to be. See for yourself, ask about Garrison 45, and what they-"

Cardin was interrupted mid sentence as a black nano bot whizzed past Pyrrha, and hit him straight in the middle of the forehead.

Pyrrha gasped as a thin trail of blood started to come out of the hole. Cardin's eyes rolled back as his head hung limply.

Her head snapped to the side looking at the perpetrator.

Penny was holding a nanobot gun, still aimed at Cardin. That wasn't what had her attention though.

Never before had Penny looked so... inhuman. The single glowing green eye on her burnt face made a shiver go down Pyrrha's spine. It was not even her face, but the... coldness in her features. The optimistic, bubbly, and funny android was now replaced by something else.

Something scary.

She turned again to Cardin, despite not having any positive feelings towards him, she could see that he changed. Old Cardin would not put his life on the line to fulfill his duty, for Jaune of all people. She would have to do some research on his deeds, if only to prove her theory.

She bowed her head, paying a last respect to fallen warrior encased in his armor, which would become his tomb.

Pyrrha lifted the chest-plate she previously ripped off, and reattached it, sealing the body within. She sparred one last look at the still armor as she passed it and went to the large doors. Using her trick she awoke the mechanism and slowly pried it open.

First thing she felt was a wave of horrendous heat hitting her face. The inside of the room was like an oven.

Forcing every ounce of power she had to the surface, she opened the doors at full width. Then her heart skipped a beat when she saw the machine in it.

Like in horrible nightmare she was again in underground levels of Beacon, staring at the oh so familiar device.

Yet this time instead of a dark skinned brunette, the woman inside had pale white skin, only beat by her snow white hair.

Pyrrha dropped her weapons in shock.

Because before her lay Winter Shnee.

The Winter Maiden.

* * *

A/N

Welp a lot have happened in the longest chapter so far a lot have happened. Kudos to those who guess from which movie is Penny's weapon.


	7. Chapter 7

A/n

The chapter is un-beta'ed so sorry in advance for all mistakes and typos

* * *

Nikosia, the highest office in the highest tower,

The weather was foul, the rain pounded heavily against the glass and the clouds hung so low that the usually great view was now obscured by gray mass. In the middle of perfectly white room with golden ornaments sat Jaune Arc.

The most powerful man in the whole world, both literally and metaphorically. With one swing of his sword he could level down a building. With one move of his pen he could do the same with whole city...

SIGN!

"Send this to General Scarlatina, I reject her plea to increase the carrots supply to her post." He told his aide that happened to be an old man that may or may not had dust shop in past…and for some strange reason seemed to stop aging.

"Mmunmmuuhuhu." He mumbled in a language that did not sound like any human one but Jaune happened to understand it.

"I have a semblance that makes me invincible don't worry I'll handle it." He waved him off.

As the forever old man left his office Jaune sighed turning to look out of the window. He really did not to do it since the whole floor was designed for his office and all walls were made out of glass.

He did not know whenever it was the weather or something else but his mood has been really bad ever since the morning.

His gut was telling him that something went horribly wrong somewhere and it was just a matter of time before it blows in his face.

Maybe he should give Velvet her carrots after all…

The doors of the lift leading to his office slid open and a rhythmic sound of heels echoed through the room.

"Jaune..."

"Yes Weiss?" Jaune welcomed her warmly, feeling his mood improved at the mere sound of her voice. After all his wife had that effect on him. Turning around he was about to embrace her.

The CEO of the Shnee Dust Company was perfect as usual. There was not a single fold on her snow white uniform. She gained a bit in height since the times of beacon but much to her dismay Ruby at some point out grew her leaving her, the very shortest of the former teams RWBY&JNPR.

Just like everyone from her generation her face wasn't free from scars. To the one running down her eye another one running vertically down her cheek joined the collection.

Yet that was not was drew Jaune's attention. It was the look of deep worry on her face..

Weiss Shnee the General of the Protectorate's Army was worried.

Well that explained Jaune's gut feeling.

"What happened Weiss?" He asked leaning on his desk.

"We got a serious situation Jaune..." Weiss spoke, her voice tight."Vacuoan facility has been sacked..."

Jaune closed his eyes feeling the massive headache coming.

"They took Winter's Maiden… and Cardin…Cardin is dead." Weiss breached feeling the oh so similar pain of losing a friend. Jaune similar to her clenched his fists.

Despite their rough start Cardin turned into one of his most trusted and steadfast allies, they fought, they bleed, they drank, they laughed.

Like friends they were.

"Who...who did that?" Jaune's voice was hoarse filled with boundless fury promising painful death to whoever did that.

Weiss for the first time in a really long while was lose for words. The scroll she was carrying was weighting heavily in her hands as she herself barely believed what she was seeing on the feed recovered from the facility.

"Jaune there's something else you need to know...Fall Maiden died yesterday"

The Great Protector was happy that he was sitting right now. Those news were catastrophic, after so much sacrifice to contain those...things. Two of them were set free to roam the land.

"How they were even able to localize the facility? There are only handful of people who knew of the location and I'm sure there is no traitors among them."

Weiss finally sat and with thoughtful expression handed him the scroll.

"Here's a feed we recovered from Cardin's armor...there's the assailants..." Weiss looked deeply into Jaune's eyes." You won't believe who were there, because I still can't..."

Jaune pressed play and watched the battle that went in the facility. He instantly recognized His daughter, Xi. Thor and Cao accompanied by robo-bitch Penny.

Yet his brain simply skimmed over those information focusing entirely on the last member of the group.

His eyes saw her but his brain refused to process it. Because what he was seeing now was surely some sort of sick joke on the rebels part. Yes they have seen a lot during the war, a lot of things that escaped reason and logic. Yet what he was seeing was even beyond that.

The warrior in red and bronze with crimson hair and piercing emerald eyes moving with the grace of tournament champion...

Yet Pyrrha Nikos was dead.

There was no way for dead returning to life.

"I never have thought that they would fell so low." Jaune growled feeling fury boil inside him." To sent their own children on such dangerous mission and even make a mockery of Pyrrha." He bailed his fists.

Weiss moved her hand and placed it at top of his giving him a gentle squeeze. He looked up at her knowing that there would be more

"Jaune please watch till the end..."

So he did feeling worse and worse with every second passing. The moves, the style, hell even the mimic were spot on. Who ever this imposer were had Pyrrha pegged down to the smallest of details until one detail became too much to not believe…

The eyes of not-Pyrrha started to glow alight with power…

Wit the power of Fall Maiden power.

"Weiss..."Jaune's voice was dry." When the Fall Maiden died?"

"Yesterday exactly at eleven twenty three PM" Weiss where he was going she went there.

The results were devastating.

"What's the exact date of this recording..."

"The logs date suggest yesterday the moment her eyes started to glow is eleven twenty four PM"

"One minute..." Jaune ran his hands through his hair." One minute...what are the chances?"

"I'm afraid close to none...I spent whole night on that running simulations." Weiss broke the eye contact." Everything is almost a perfect match, the fact that right after Fall Maiden death the power went to her means..."

"That this is real Pyrrha..." Jaune closed his eyes. The thing he dreamed, the thing he begged, the thing he yearned have finally been granted.

And it frightened him now.

* * *

 _Unknown location_

Pyrrha was floating though the nothingness. She could barely recall what happened before. She fought some black monster and won.

Maybe.

'Am I dead? Again?' For some reason that thoguht was funny to her. She probably held the world's record in dying.

"You're not dead." Suddenly she was out of darkness and found herself sitting under enormous oak.

It's leafs were falling down surrounding the whole area in red and yellow. The sun was shining brightly yet the cold winds sent a chill down her spine.

After a second or so she realized that she wasn't alone.

Next to her was a woman. She had short navy blue hair , and dull sapphire eyes. Her face had nice round shape with small nose. She was dressed into Protectorate standard gray uniform.

"I don't think we met before..." Pyrrha began.

"We did I just looked different." She offered her small smile." You knew me under the name of Amber. You can call me that if you want."

"I don't understand." The Red head replied confused.

"Each time Maiden's power pass onto another host the previous one comes along with the power to guide the new maiden in the responsible use of power." The girl chuckled." Well most of them. Cinder wasn't the stablest individual around."

"Cinder?!" Pyrrha gasped.

"Yes even if her way to acquire power was...unorthodox that still made her a maiden. Boy that was a ride." The maiden snickered." It was always destroy that or use him or her. But she happened to be quite good teacher."

Pyrrha looked at her with disbelief.

"Yes after what she did to you I would doubt it too but death can chance an individual… to a certain point."

A silence fell between the two. Pyrrha had so many question that she did not know which one to ask. Aside from one…

"D-Did you...die because of me?" The Champion blurted out. The girl offered her a kind smile.

"I died the day Protectorate captured me and locked me in the facility very much like the one that held my Winter sister. You just offered me a way out of that hell."

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be, instead of spending my remain days whitening away there I'm able to be of some use to you." She grinned." Now I guess it's time for you to wake up, your friends are worrying."

Everything started to fade into black.

"Wait I have so many questions!" Pyrrha shouted to the darkness.

"Don't worry I'm not going anywhere." The maiden's voice sounded from distance.

"At least tell me your name?!"

"Maya, My name is Maya"

* * *

Pyrrha awoke with a gasp sitting uptight. Like days earlier it wasn't the brightest idea when the wave of pain hit her.

She moaned feeling her whole body ache like there's no tomorrow. After the initial wave passed she looked around seeing that she was in some sort...dusty old room. It had dirty yellow walls and was rather spartan when it came to furniture. Aside from bed there was only a nightstand and a small wooden chair next to it.

Pyrrha furrowed her eyebrows trying to recall how did she get there but nothing came to her mind. There was the fight, the maiden...Cardin.

Cardin.

Killed right in front of her eyes by Penny. She did not know what occurred between him and rebels but to see him in such mangled form was heart wrenching, she did not like him but even Cardin did not deserve what happened to him.

Or to be killed killed like that.

Again the gap between past and present made itself painfully visible. Just how much history did she miss?

'Where is the rest?' She thought getting up with grunt. She went to the doors and pulled them open.

Her body tensed when she noticed a man that could only be described as desert bandit. He was wearing a dusty brown coat, with white cloth wrapped all over his face with pair of goggled on his neck.

"Calm down lass." He spoke in gruff voice." I'm no foe, I'll tell your friends that you're awake."

"Are they ok?"

"Yeah little roughed but they'll manage." He replied without turning back." Follow me I'll take ya to them."

Pyrrha nodded yet she was still wary. The mam certainly did not project the trustworthy vibe. After a few minutes of walk through narrow corridor they entered a large magazine/mess hall where more of rather questionable individualists were hanging around. The place was filled with various conteners boxed and other contraband with old wooden tables and chairs placed randomly around.

"Pyrrha!" She heard Summer shout from a nearby table, the kids were there and just like her they were bandaged from head to toe.

"I'm glad that you're ok." Pyrrha said mustering a smile.

"You have a funny definition of okey, Champ." The mummy that turned to be Cao said.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha apologized instantly making them laugh." Anyways I wanted to ask how did we get here?

"It was so weird!" Thor explained." After Xi kicked me back to life we took you and that lady from the tube out. We fought some robots on the way out but nothing major. But the strangest thing was out side! When we got out we saw like whole protectorate fleet coming at us! But then a massive sand storm came out of nowhere! But that's not the strangest part." Thor paused dramatically." We were like protected by some...force field!"

"Excuse me?"

"He's not joking for some reason neither the wind or sand affected us." Xi confirmed her brother's words." All the way here us and our ship were surrounded by buffer zone that shielded us from the storm...unlike the protectorate ships that were stuck in it."

Pyrrha briefly wondered if the Maidens had something to do with that.

"Where is Winter?" She suddenly asked confusing the kids.

"Who?" Summer no pun intended asked.

"The woman from the facility." A round of ohhh went around the table.

"She's awaken but refuses to speak to anyone but you, Pyrrha." Xi told her. " Do you know her?"

"Yes, she's Weiss older sister..." She told them slowly seeing shock on the faces of gathered.

"Weiss like the White haired, so cold that it's hot, the Protector lover Weiss?" Cao asked accidentally breaking Pyrrha.

"L-L-Lover?!" The Spartan chocked with utter and utmost disbelief." Weiss!?"

"CAO!" Summer exclaimed." Mom told to not mention that to Pyrrha!"

"Gah! I forgot!" Cao lamented knowing that now he will get it.

"Weiss and Jaune...lovers...Jaune and Weiss." Pyrrha droned looking like she was on verge of mind break."Together-Together."

"Mom is going to break your legs Cao." Thor felt pang of pity for almost crying Cao.

"But Summer told her that Her mom and Arc were a thing too!" Cao protested lamely.

"Ruby Jaune Weiss..." Pyrrha registered that information too."White Lancaster..."

"CAO!" The trio shouted in outrage.

By this point every individual in the mess room was staring at them with faint amusement.

The should seemed to reboot as she sat heavily beside them with blank expression on her face.

"Food..." She said looking at Cao in a way that eerily reminded him of the bar…

"S-Sure thing! I'll be back in minute!"

Very uncomfortable silence fell on the trio as Pyrrha was processing what he ust heard. Somehow the fact that Weiss and Jaune were lovers somehow shook her even more than the fact that she was now a full fall maiden.

' _You really have your priorities straight Pyrrha...'_ Maya's voice startled Pyrrha out of her skin.

"Ahhh!"

"HIII!"Summer and much to everyone's surprise Xi yelped at Pyrrha's scream. The later blushing fiercely at her own outburst.

"What? What?" Thor asked perplexed.

"I'm not sure..." Pyrrha said slowly certain that she was losing her mind." I think I'm going insane..."

" _You're perfectly fine my sister."_ A velvet like voice sounded through the room. It was familiar yet so alien at the same time.

Mostly because it lacked years of strict upbringing and military discipline.

Winter Shnee was currently walking towards the supported by Penny which had bandages over half of her face and lacked an arm…

"Salutations! I'm ecstatic that you're alive Pyrrha!" Penny grinned projecting actual happiness. Yet it wasn't returned by the Champion as she still could see Penny's inhuman look when she killed Cardin.

Pyrrha ignored the perpetually positive robot and focused her attention on Winter. Somehow the woman did not change much. Maybe it was her Snow white hair or the Shnee's natural beauty but she did no look like day over thirty.

"It's good to see you again, Pyrrha." Winter said offering a warm smile." I apologize my my interruption but we have a lot to discuss, mind if we borrow Pyrrha for a while?"

Despite asking the kids knew that it wasn't a request. Pyrrha reluctantly stood up and followed the two women.

They lead her to quite spacious and well furnished room with projector and large table with numerous pads and documents on it. Not t mention a place full of steaming meat and a large cup of some unspecified liquid.

Pyrrha felt her mouth water when the delicious smell reached her nose.

"Indulge yourself dear you look starving." A voice snapped her from her trance. Pyrrha look to the far side of the room seeing a tall blonde woman with her back turned to her.

Pyrrha did not need anymore encouragement since she was starving. She sat at the table and dug in annihilating the roasted meat with vigor.

After the record time the plate was empty and Pyrrha was sipping Vacuan cactus juice feeling alive again.

"Well Well my little brother failed to mention that you were such a glutton." The woman turned around." But Jaune wasn't lying when he said that you were beautiful"

The comment make Pyrrha choke on the juice.

"Brother?!" She managed to choke between coughs.

"Oh yes how impolite of me, my name is Jean Arc." Only now Pyrrha took her features in. The shade of blonde was exactly like Jaune and her sky blue eyes had the same spark as Jaune used to have.

One would call Jean a stunningly beautiful woman if not for three deep gashes that marred her face.

"A memento Ursa left me when Cinder attacked my hometown."

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to stare!" Pyrrha's face matched her face earning a small chuckle from the woman.

"It's ok it takes a while to get use to it." She waved her hand." Anyways how about we begin. She took a seat a the top of the table with Winter on her right and Penny on her left." Winter if you would be so kind?"

"Yes, I guess you're familiar with how the Maiden's powers are passed?" The Red head nodded." Along with Maiden's power comes something else, the previous Maiden soul comes along too."

"Maya..."Pyrrha mumbled.

"Yes Maya is now with you and will tutor you on how to use your power properly passing all her experience and knowledge onto you...sadly she wasn't allowed to use her powers for long, making her experience very limited.

' _Hey! I resent that!'_ Maya snapped.

"She's rather unhappy at that assessment." Pyrrha told them.

"Facts aren't supposed to bring joy just describe reality, closing yourself to the facts just because you don't agree with them is foolish." Jean said."Maya was the last one to be captured and that only happened because she was dumb enough to try take on my brother, alone."

"Jaune's power is something that even a Maiden cannot underestimate." Winter told them. " That is why we need to make sure you are prepared to fight Pyrrha, you on your own are a very formidable warrior despite your young age but with Maiden's power you might quickly become one of the most powerful people on the Remnant."

"I still don't understand how you were able to bring me back?" Pyrrha asked surprising Winter and Maya.

"How did you figure it was us?" Winter asked with small pleased smile. Intelligence was a useful trait in maiden.

"I had a feeling I knew this voice, this power that I felt in the darkness...it was the four maiden power wasn't it?"

"Yes it was, now I will tell you something only select few knows…tell me what do Maiden's represent?"

"Err the seasons?"

"Yes the obvious answer but what does the seasons represent?" Winter pressed. Pyrrha hummed furrowing her eyebrows in deep thought.

"Change? Passage of time…."

"The cycle of life and death" Winter spoke stunning her into silence." You see we weren't completely powerless in our confinement despite the horrible lengths Jaune went to keep us locked we managed to gather enough power to bring you back to life."

"But why me? I'm sure that there were stronger people than me who could help you more..." Pyrrha replied.

"Because we felt that you are the key for defeating Jaune and his protectorate." Winter said simply.

.

.

.

.

The silence was defeating as the words hung in the air. Pyrrha just looked at the white haired woman with mouth agape. How could she a mere first year student be a key to defeating a man that ruled whole world.

How could anyone think that she could do that.

How could anyone think that she wanted to do that.

"I know that this might be a lot to take but I also want you to realize something." Winter continued as the silence stretched." What Atlas military did to you with that machine was a...perversion of nature. No one should be able to transfer one aura to another for that process is reserved only for selected few and humans should not be able to use it...it's trespassing into Gods territory."

"Gods?" Pyrrha parroted.

"That's the story for another time, anymore revelations and you might faint." Jean told Pyrrha." I called Ruby and told them that you're all safe and sound, that way we avoided dramatic rescue mission from her."

"We'll rest for the rest of the day and then we will travel back to the Beacon along with Winter." Penny stated." After all it's been three days already..."

"What?!"

* * *

Replay

That seemed to be a theme of the day for Jaune Arc. He canceled all his meeting and appointment just to re-watch the accursed video hundreds times.

He looked for something, anything that would deny the fact that the red headed girl on the vid was Pyrrha.

Yet each time he watched it his hope was diminishing.

You could fake your look, sound of the voice, even mimic combat style to a degree but what he was seeing how was impossible.

And that was coming from a man that killed an incarnation of darkness.

It wasn't just the fact that her style was spot on. It was all the little things that mattered. The slight tilt of her javelin when she went for low attack, the left foot slightly forward when she was about to went for a thrust or when she unconsciously bit her lip when she was facing a serious problem.

How could anyone master those little tidbits belonging to a girl that that was killed two decades ago was simply beyond Jaune.

Unless someone tampered with video and he knew from five different analyst centers that it was genuine material.

The girl on the screen had to be Pyrrha Nikos.

Jaune closed his eyes finally turning off the screen. He had enough for today. He would think about ramifications tomorrow.

Now all he wanted was to return to his wife.

Well technically his wife was still Ruby since they hadn't got through proper divorce but that was only on paper. In secret from everyone Weiss and him held a small wedding ceremony few years back with only very small group of friends they had left.

Jaune felt that the edges of his lips curve into a smile as he recalled how stunning Weiss looked that day.

Not to mention slight tremble of her chin as she barely held it together. He sat inside his armored air car and along with his escort flied back to their mansion just twenty five minutes of flight outside the city.

The rain was pounding against the hardened glass as his mood worsened. His thoughts traveled back to Pyrrha again.

The rebels had her. By now she probably thought that he was a power-hungry tyrant that gets his kicks from oppressing people...at the least that's how the rebels portrayed him.

If matters turns to the worse he would have to fight her...and with her maiden's power he would not be able to go easy on her…

A shadow of a smile passed through his lips.

Going easy on Pyrrha. Who would have thought that he would ever think of that. He sighed as the weigh of the gap between his Beacon times and now hit him for unkempt time this day.

It's been so long since he puked over Yang's boots on that goddamn dust ship. Luckily for him now the medicine was advanced enough to provide him with pill for his motion sickness…

The air-car gently landed almost right in front of his doors. Jaune stepped out looking at his house or rather a mansion.

Unlike most of Nikosia this one was built to imagine of his house in his home town of Norreta. The walls were made of bricks with roof having an earthly brown color. The wall were thick keeping the inside warm.

Seeing it he felt that a piece of his now burned down home managed to survive...in size dozens time the original.

His butlers opened the door welcoming him inside. He took off his coat and handed it to his servant welcoming the warmth of his home.

The polished wooden floor shined as usual, and there was not a speck of dust anywhere. Living with Weiss quickly made the staff learn the true meaning of pedantry quite quickly.

Since it was already late Jaune decided to miss supper and went straight to their room. He was expecting Weiss to sleep already but he found her awake in their bed.

Looking less then pleased.

"I know I know I promised to be back on supper..." He began undressing.

"Which was six hours ago..." Weiss said seemingly off-handily but experience told Jaune that she wouldn't let that go for a while." Before I start go get a shower."

Jaune sighed and did as he was told, cementing the gossips that it was Weiss Shnee that truly governed the protectorate…

After few minutes he came back clean and hooped into the bed. Now he was ready to get and earful from Weiss and end this shitty day.

"Oh don't make the face as if you're going to get executed..." Weiss told him folding her arms. It was never a good sign when she did that, especially in bed.

That meant a long and rather unpleasant conversation.

"So how was your day." She asked.

Another telltale sign of aforementioned conversation.

"Weiss I know that you're angry that I came back so late...and I promised you a dinner."

"If you think that's the reason Jaune Arc then you're as dumb as you were at Beacon day one!"

Ouch that stung.

"Then why?" He relented.

"You canceled all your meetings, every single appointment, not to mention you bunker yourself in your office to do what exactly?" She glared daggers at him." To watch a video all day long! I know it's important and had impact but you have a country to run mister! You can't watch Pyrrha look alike all day long!"

Click.

Jaune blinked looking at Weiss with mouth agape. He did not believe that something like that just happened.

"Weiss...are you by any chance jealous? " Jaune barely kept the mirth from his voice." That I watched video of Pyrrha all day?"

"Don't be absurd! It has nothing to do with that!" Weiss instantly denied even the slightest possibility of that.

Jaune looked at her with incredulous look on his face before bursting out with mad laughter.

"That is not funny!" She shouted with cheeks growing so ever slightly red at being caught. That was not the way she planned this conversation to go.' Men your age tend to do stupid stuff!"

Jaune wrapped one arm around her and pulled her into a hug still laughing. Weiss tried to free herself but her husband was just too strong so with massive pout she gave up.

After he stopped laughing they fell into semi-comfortable silence. Weiss leaned into his warm embrace snuggling at his side.

"You know...everything is spot on." Jaune finally spoke with heavy sigh." That girl is truly Pyrrha."

Weiss did not ask how would he know it. She learned long ago to trust Jaune judgment. She hugged him tighter feeling that he needed her support.

"I really did try to find anything that would point otherwise, I went though all the instruction materials she left me, commercials, hell I even racked my memory to find any inconsistency...but I couldn't find any."

Jaune closed his eyes focusing on a feeling of his wife's body pressed against his.

"I'm…scared Weiss."

Well that was something she did not hear often anymore from Jaune.

"Of fighting Pyrrha?" Weiss asked tenderly.

"No, of having to kill her."

* * *

A/N

Well slower chapter this time but now the dice has been cast and Jaune is on the move! Till next time and Merry Christmas guys!


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